Jamie Carragher has dismissed Chelsea’s chances of winning the Barclays Premier League and claimed that the title race will come down to a straight fight between Liverpool and Manchester United.

Chelsea travel to Aston Villa on Saturday lunchtime, two points adrift of Martin O’Neill’s team and five behind Liverpool with 13 games remaining. Frank Lampard, the Chelsea midfield player, has already suggested that the West London club can wave goodbye to their title hopes if they fail to win at Villa Park, but Carragher already appears to have written them off.

“We finished fourth last season, but we have overtaken Chelsea and Arsenal and even though everyone at the club understands that it’s not over yet by a long way, at the moment it looks like it is going to be us and Manchester United for the title,” the Liverpool defender said. “Just by overtaking Chelsea and Arsenal in the challenge is an achievement in itself, so everyone should be proud of that. Now, hopefully, we can go one step farther and win this title.”

United opened up a five-point lead at the top last night after beating Fulham at Old Trafford and could have extended that advantage to eight points if they overcome Blackburn Rovers at home on Saturday evening by the time Liverpool welcome Manchester City to Anfield on Sunday. However, Carragher thinks that Liverpool are capable of catching United and believes that the league match between the teams at Old Trafford on March 14 is likely to be pivotal.

“There are still a lot of games to go, so it’s important everyone at the club remains calm,” he said. “United have a bit of a lead on us at the moment, but if we can close that gap before we go to Old Trafford next month, that would put us in a great position — especially if we are in form at the time of that game.”

After three successive league draws, Liverpool returned to winning ways in their previous two league matches with victories over Chelsea and Portsmouth, but Carragher knows that they must beat City.

Steven Gerrard, the captain, has an outside chance of being fit for the game as he makes a speedy recovery from a hamstring tear, but Carragher believes it to be just as essential that Liverpool keep Fernando Torres fit after being forced to cope without the Spain striker — who has scored three times in his past two games — for much of this season.

“Fernando has been scoring goals recently, but if we can get him back firing like he did at the end of the last season, it’s going to be a massive boost for us,” Carragher said. “Fernando is the best striker in the Premier League, if not the world, so to be where we are already after playing so much of the season without him is a great credit to the lads, staff and management. It would be interesting to see how other teams would cope with having such an important player on the sidelines for so long.”

Uefa will try to prevent a potential Champions League quarter-final involving Liverpool being played on the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. If Rafael Benítez’s side beat Real Madrid in the first knockout round, which begins next week, the second leg of their quarter-final could fall on Wednesday, April 15, the date on which Liverpool want to hold a memorial service for the 96 Liverpool fans who died at the game that day.

“We have asked not to play on that date and that April 14 should be considered instead,” a Liverpool spokesman said. “Uefa has replied acknowledging the significance of the date and confirming they will do their best to support our request if we progress.”