Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti has urged his players not to panic in the race for the Premier League title following their 2-1 defeat at Tottenham.

Manchester United beat Manchester City 1-0 earlier on Saturday to cut the gap on league leaders Chelsea to one point.

But Ancelotti said: "We know what we have to do in the next three games. We must not have a panic now.

"We are top of the league with only three games left so every team wants to be in our place."

Chelsea were outplayed by a Tottenham side who were 2-0 ahead at half-time thanks to goals from Jermain Defoe and Gareth Bale.

Matters got worse for the men from Stamford Bridge when captain John Terry was sent off for a second bookable offence, which will mean the captain will miss the Blues' next game against Stoke on Sunday.

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However, Ancelotti refused to criticise referee Phil Dowd and knows that if Chelsea win their last three games - against Stoke, Liverpool and Wigan - the title will return to Stamford Bridge for the first time since 2006.

"We had a problem with soft defence," said the Italian after Chelsea's sixth defeat of the season.

"We didn't put pressure on the ball. Lampard scored at the end but when we lost Terry it was impossible to recover the game with 10 against 11.

"We have two games at home and one difficult game away. We can be the best again. A one-point lead is not bad at this stage of the season.

"I am always confident. I am less confident than yesterday but we are still in the best position."

It was a superb performance from Tottenham as they surpassed the sparkling form which saw them beat north London rivals Arsenal in midweek.

Spurs now have a two-point cushion over fifth-placed Manchester City in the battle for the final Champions League spot.

But manager Harry Redknapp remained cautious when asked about his side's chances of finishing fourth.

"I still think it's going to be close. Villa and Liverpool have it all to do to catch us but certainly Man City have still got a great chance. We have still got to go to City," he said.

"The Man United result went our way but you have got to take advantage of that. We had to make sure we won to get the benefit."

Redknapp added that there was "no doubt" that Tottenham were the better team against both Arsenal on Wednesday and Chelsea on Saturday.

"They were well-deserved wins," he said. "We were the better team again, there was no doubt about that. We created all the chances and deserved the points.

"It's a difficult task beating Chelsea, not many teams manage to do that."

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