Is he not talking about the immediate time after the WBA game rather than defining the season. I think you might be over analysing his words there.
Chelsea, West Ham & the RS all have a game or games between us playing WBA and the following fixture away to Chelsea and also have better goal difference. The odds are that it will be a brief spell at fourth before our next game. It's arguably as much about deflecting other teams attention from Everton slowly creeping up the rails as it is about our own players - I'm sure what Ancelotti says behind closed doors is slightly different than comments in front of the camera.
Ranieri managed to win a title spending the first half of the season talking about getting 40 points and staying up. As a result nobody seemed to take them seriously until it was too late.
Or do you reckon Carlo should be taking sports psychology lessons from this fella.....