Avram Grant accused the Premier League of jeopardising Chelsea’s title chances yesterday as the fallout continued from the controversial decision to bring forward next month’s Barclays Premier League match away to Everton by 48 hours.

Chelsea are furious that a potentially crucial match has been switched at the request of Sky TV to Thursday, April 17, only three days after they play Wigan Athletic at Stamford Bridge in a match that will be televised by Setanta.

In contrast, Manchester United will have six days between matches against Arsenal and Blackburn Rovers – and Arsenal six between their fixtures – leading to Grant’s accusation that Chelsea are being treated unfairly.

The club have hinted at taking the matter farther, although the decision has been ratified by the Premier League board, so there is little that they can do.

“I don’t understand why we need to play on a Thursday,” Grant said. “It’s unfair. When we come to the end of the season we need an equal situation for all teams and now they [United and Arsenal] have an advantage on us. It’s unfair what’s happening. We need to fight in any way that we can to make it a fair decision.”

Chelsea released another strongly worded statement yesterday attacking the fixture change, claiming that the match had been moved solely to suit television.

The Premier League was faced with the problem of fitting in additional televised fixtures to fulfil its contractual obligation to allow 138 live matches to be shown each season and with all the usual slots for the weekend of April 19 and 20 filled, it had little room for manoeuvre. Monday, April 21 was ruled out because Chelsea could be in the Champions League semi-finals that week, while Merseyside Police overruled a Friday evening fixture in Liverpool because of concerns over staffing levels.

“We would like to make clear that the rescheduling of the Everton fixture was a decision made solely on television grounds and as a result of the Premier League board failing to resolve scheduling issues,” a Chelsea statement read. “There were no issues with police, fixture congestion or European football involved in the decision, as has been claimed.”

Grant was happier discussing yesterday’s 1-0 win over Middlesbrough that moved Chelsea back up to second in the table, although he conceded that Middlesbrough had been unfortunate to lose to Ricardo Carvalho’s headed goal after hitting the woodwork three times.

“They were unlucky, but we also created some good chances from open play,” the Chelsea first-team coach said. “We started very well and maybe because of that we thought it would be easy. We controlled the ball, controlled the game, but by not making it 2-0 it became a good chance for the other team.

“At this stage of the season, it’s about winning. We’re five points from Manchester United again. With them and Arsenal winning, we had to win. Since I’ve been here we’ve been chasing after other teams. First it was five teams, then four, now just one. We’ve gone past Liverpool and now Arsenal. We have to keep winning and hoping that, when United come here [on April 26] it will be important.”

Gareth Southgate, the Middlesbrough manager, said: “We created chances in the second half and could have walked away with a point. In the first half I thought we’d come to admire Chelsea and swap shirts at the end of the game, but we said at half-time that we had to leave here with no regrets. Given the chances we had, and the possible penalty as well, we have to take a lot of belief from that.”