Michael Essien still feels Chelsea can be part of the Premier League title race, despite Arsenal and Manchester United establishing a small gap at the top.
"We are not far behind the leaders," said the midfielder
"The Christmas period is a difficult time, but we have to keep going and we'll see what we can do.
"We can bounce back after Sunday. We play every game to win. We had one setback against Arsenal, and I think we showed against Liverpool how much we hate losing and that we can win something.
"We are very bad losers. We hate to lose - we always like to win. It was tough to lose at Arsenal but it was up to us to forget it, keep ourselves together and come back from us."
Essien will miss a part of the season while playing for Ghana in the African Nations Cup. He wants to make his mark in England before his international duty - and he is confident Chelsea also have the quality in depth to cover when he has his break from domestic football.
"I want to do well for my club before I go away - and then the other players can do their job when I'm away," he said.
"I will keep working hard and do something before I leave.
"We have got other world-class players here, so I'm sure they can do their job."
