"In my career, we've never been in contention around March or April. The best teams pace themselves and get into the right position by then," said our vice-captain.
"When the mind games start, I want us to be in everyone's thoughts. It will tell us that we've been doing something right, and that we're in with a good shout of winning the Premier League.
"I love all that; and it's always been disappointing that it's other teams that have been involved rather than us. We've always been outside the race watching and reading about it; but now we've a great chance to be in the thick of it.
"I've always felt the time to really get into the mix is when there are 10 games to go."