Chelsea defender David Luiz says The Blues can stun their Manchester rivals by ending up Barclays Premier League champions this season.

The Blues have struggled to keep pace in with the title race and are now 11 points behind leaders Manchester City in fouth-place.

But Luiz believes there is still time for Andre Villas-Boas' side to make a comeback and lift the trophy come May this year.

"I believe we can turn this table round and even maybe end up winning the championship - and people are going to be praising Andre and saying that he is the best manager in the world," Luiz was quoted as saying in The Telegraph.

Portuguese coach Villas-Boas has had a roller-coaster start to his career at Stamford Bridge and there were even talks of him losing his job half-way through the season following a poor run of results.

But Luiz has faith in his manager and insists the 34-year-old has what it takes to lead Chelsea to glory this season.

He added: "Because he does not have anything to prove: he is a proven manager; he has done a lot in his career. He is a wonderful manager.

"The job that he has done has brought him over here [from Porto], and I am sure that he is going to be a very successful manager with Chelsea.

"A lot of what is being said about Andre is undeserved. He doesn't deserve this treatment of being talked about in this way at all.

"I know he is more than capable of turning things around and changing the situation. Later on you are going to be talking loads about him and how wonderful he is, I'm sure of that."