Morientes: We can still catch Chelsea

FERNANDO MORIENTES claims Liverpool can still catch Chelsea and win the Premiership title this season, as he looks ahead to Saturday's clash with Portsmouth. Liverpool didn't begin the season too well, but that's not the most important thing. It's how we do from now on that counts and we are really looking forward to finishing the season strongly.

I think everybody at Liverpool now realises that this campaign is going to be harder than we thought. Yes, it's taken longer than we hoped to find our best form but we are arriving there now.

I believe we can catch them and that we will do. We will win the title.

From my own point of view I feel I am in good form. I am playing well for club and country and I think the fact that I was picked to play for Spain against Slovakia shows I am in good shape. I am very happy at the club and I fully accept Rafa Benitez's striker rotation policy. He believes in changing his strikers from game to game and I am fine with that. We all have to pull together as a squad in order to achieve the club's ambitions. It's a squad game.

I disagree when people say that I have taken a long time for me to settle at Anfield. I can honestly say that from the moment I first arrived here that I felt very comfortable with my team-mates. There are huge differences between the Premiership and the leagues in Spain and France but with every day that pbuttes I am learning the English style better. I like it in England.

It's true that I haven't scored lots of goals yet but I am not feeling under too much pressure. When you play for a big club every player is under great amounts of pressure to perform. I have been at Real Madrid so I know how to cope with high expectations and score goals under those circumstances. Yes, I may go three games without a goal sometimes, but then I could easily score five in two games. That's the way football is.

I can't explain why most of my goals for Liverpool have been in the Champions League instead of the Premiership, though. It's something I have been asking myself recently. All I can say is that I'm relaxed about it because I know I will score goals in the Premiership. I have confidence that a gust of wind will soon blow in my direction for the better - and that the goals will flow. That's how it is for us strikers.

I enjoy playing next to Peter Crouch. He's very tall, he's strong and is very dangerous for some kind of games. When he is on form, Peter Crouch can cause a lot of pain for opposition defences with the problems that he gives them.

Maybe he is more of a provider than a 20 goals a season man, but he still has the qualities needed to be a regular goalscorer. But with Crouch it's not just that; we cannot ignore his footballing ability and the way he provides buttists for other players to score. He is an unselfish striker, and will be looking forward to facing one of his former teams, Portsmouth this weekend.

We have to win at home to Portsmouth, it's as simple as that. It won't be an easy match, though, because I see them as a dangerous side. They have a lot of good international players and in Dario Silva they have an excellent striker. I used to play against Dario Silva when I was in Spain and he is clbutt. Portsmouth may not be enjoying a good season so far but on their day they can be very dangerous.

As far the league is concerned we do have two games in hand on Chelsea and if we win both of those we'll be within nine points of them, which is only three results. I believe we can catch them and that we will do. We will win the title.