Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas has conceded that Chelsea's title ambitions are over - for now.
Following their drab 1-1 draw against near neighbours Fulham at Stamford Bridge, the Portuguese said: "We were not good enough to win today.
"The title is now difficult. Had we got three points today and another
three against Aston Villa next week, then it would have been a very good
December, " he added.
"We are realists, we have to assess things as they are. We brought the
gap back to Man City to seven points, now the gap could be 13 points -
that makes it difficult.
"Maybe the league is over at the moment."
Such an admission from a Chelsea manager will hardly go down well in the corridors of real power at Stamford Bridge and it's a brave tactic to announce publicly that your team is not good enough.
How that will go with the players in the changing room is anyones guess.
Villas-Boas admitted he did not speak to his players after the game,
instead he talked to his technical staff.
"We created enough chances to win the game," he said.
"Fulham were organised and compact, there was no space for us to
exploit.
"Once we scored in the second half, we lost momentum. we tried to get a
second but (David) Stockdale had a fantastic game.
"We did everything in our power to get a second goal, but we were short
in the first half.
"If we had the same levels that we had against Spurs on Thursday, we
could have scored more goals - we were not good enough to win."
Villas-Boas started misfiring Fernando Torres in place of Didier Drogba.
"Didier has played every game recently," he said.
"So we decided to play Torres. He had a good impact on the game and
showed the level of commitment he is displaying in training.
"We don't demand our strikers to score. We have goalscorers all over our team."
Villas-Boas admitted that he is closer to landing Gary Cahill from
Bolton Wanderers in January when the transfer window opens.
"We are trying to close the deal (for Cahill)," he said.
"The centre-back deal is close, we have had our initial talks with
Bolton. Maybe we will bring someone else in as well," he added.
On the injury front, Villas-Boas admitted that Branislav Ivanovic and
Mikel are unlikely to be available to play Villa on Saturday. Ivanovic
could be ready for the FA Cup game against Portsmouth on January 8 while Mikel probably the game after.
To ad to his defensive wows, Chelsea lost right-back Jose Bosingwa to a
suspected hamstring injury and he is a doubt for Saturday's league match against Aston Villa.