Jose Mourinho is counting down the games to when his team is to be crowned champions.
The 3-2 win at Hull City this afternoon, after letting slip a two nil lead before Loic Remy notched up the winner gave the manager a huge sigh of relief.
"We let the lead go but played fantastic football with the ball," he said.
"At half time we wanted to play the same football as we played at the beginning of the game.
I told the player there is no point in analysing details and mistakes.
At 2-2 the team felt deeply and we did not pas well after that
But from first minute of the second half we went back to our quality football to create movement. And sooner or later the goal should arrive.
Hull second goal was a comedy of errors when a back pass to Thibaut Courtois saw the goalkeepe make hash of it, allowingAbel Hernandez the simplest of chance to slide the ball into an e,pty net.
Mourinho said of the mistake. "If we tell the goalkeeper to kick the ball into the stands at a back pass, we don't lose the goal. But we don't tell them that. We try to play football, lost the rebound. The defenders did not h e the passing line to play the ball out from the back, so everyone is unhappy.
"But the reality is that if you go to half-time 0-0 not playing well, with not confidence, then I would be worried.
"But the team was playing so,well at 2-2. It was just a question of stability and being in emotional control and to deal with the moment. And play.
"And in the second half they played. It was difficult against them with their counter-attack and Courtois made three saves in a few seconds. After that we created and deserved to win."
Diego Costa limped off with a recurrence of his long-standing hamstring injury which should force him out of international duty with Spain.
Mourinho said: "When a striker is playing and the team needs a goal to win the game with 15 minutes to go, and the striker comes out, a guy with experience of hamstring injuries, when he says it's over for him, it's over.
"He has this hamstring problem. He tried to play for Atletico Madrid in last season's Champions League final but was injured. This season he has been injured again and again. He has this fragility. We know he does jog have a string hamstring. He works hard in training to compensate for the weakness. But the injury can come. He now has 15 days without football with Chelsea. But if he is injured, we still have Remy and Didier Drogba. We never cry about injured players.
"I don't think he will need an operation. The do or or is against surgery and knives. He's all in favour of collective work with the medical and fitness staff. This is the direction we are going."
Jose treats this game like any other but with just nine left he knows the title is getting closer.
"If we dos not win this game, after the way we played we would get the same feeling we had against Southampton [1-1 drW at Stamford Bridge]. we dos not win, but we knew that we played well enough in the second half of that game to win it.
"But this feeling is a double feeling, one because we played well, and won because we got what we deserved. That's a good feeling.
The title race should be over. In normal conditions, we should have 12 points more than we have now and the title race would be over. But it's unpredictable. The reality is we have a six-point lead. Which is the best of the season. We had an eight-point lead but then had 25 games still to play.
We now also have a match in hand which could help us to have a bigger distance.
Our opponents can get another 24 points if ghee do that, it's up to us to get the points we need.
"I'm pretty confident we will win it. I am confident in my players - but it can be difficult."
French striker Loic Remy came off the bench and notched up the winner and Mourinho has a degree of sympathy for the player who has not figured as much as he would like in the side.
"Probably he deserves more than what I give him," Mourinho admitted.
"Sometimes a coach can feel obliged to a player and that's the case with Remy, I owe him something. Every time he plays even if he does nit score, he does a lot for the side. He never complains."
Mourinho is not happy that the international breaks means it's 15 games before they play again against Stoke City at the Bridge.
"But I am happy for Diego. Imagine playing three matches in one week without him? So it's good for us we don't play. But at his moment we have nine matches to play and I would like to play every week, so sometimes not so good for us."
Ends