Mourinho salutes Chelsea's nerve after Pompey win

Jose Mourinho, pictured, paid tribute to Chelsea's character after watching them battle to a 2-0 win over Portsmouth

Jose Mourinho paid tribute to Chelsea's character after watching them battle to a 2-0 victory over Portsmouth here at Fratton Park.

The Londoners left it late to see off the challenge of a brave but ultimately luckless Pompey, and the Blues' lead over second-placed Arsenal now stands at a daunting eight points although the champions can reduce it to five again with victory away to Newcastle on Wednesdsay.

Goals in the last 10 minutes from Dutch international Arjen Robben and substitute Joe Cole propelled the Blues to their seventh away win of the season, and Mourinho was left in no doubt as to the significance of Tuesday's scoreline.

He said: "I have told my players that this was a very important result.

"At half-time I said that this was not the game to show our quality but to show that we wanted to be champions.

"We had no chance to dribble or play a beautiful possession game - it was impossible," added the Portuguese, who guided Porto to the Champions League trophy last season.

"We just wanted to win and go home with the three points."

Chelsea were second best for much of the first half and almost fell behind when Nigel Quashie's long-range swerving shot forced Petr Cech into a magnificent save.

Mourinho added: "In the first half we had no control of the game, we did not create a single chance to score.

"Then they had a fantastic shot which I thought was in the net but Petr made an incredible save. I was happy when the referee blew for half-time.

"Portsmouth have very good players and they were confident because of their recent results, so it was a very difficult game for us.

"Manchester United have lost here and Arsenal were lucky to win, and maybe we have been a bit lucky too."

Mourinho lavished praise on his flying winger Robben, whose deflected goal 11 minutes from time broke the deadlock, and even refused to censure the former PSV Eindhoven player for collecting a booking after taking off his shirt during his goal celebration.

"Robben is not a typical winger - in the system we play he is just an attacking player," Mourinho explained. "He has scored very important goals for us throughout the season and that is fantastic.

"Taking the shirt off was not clever but I can understand the emotion of scoring. If he does it again I will be able to forgive another yellow card."

Chelsea's win was sealed by Cole's clever curled finish from 18 yards in stoppage time, but Mourinho refuted suggestions his side were now uncatchable.

"Arsenal are playing at Newcastle on Wednesday so after that the gap might be five points or it might be seven points - who knows?

"We are just thinking about ourselves and winning our matches - we don't need to wait for them.

"But from the mental point of view we have made a breakthrough because Chelsea usually lose points over the Christmas period."

Portsmouth coach Joe Jordan said the title race was still wide open, despite Chelsea's huge advantage.

"There have been teams in the Premier League in recent seasons who have been eight or ten points clear but have still been caught.

"Both Arsenal and Chelsea have played below their usual standards against us at Fratton Park but have shown great resilience to get all three points.

"As for whether the two London clubs will make enough mistakes to allow Manchester United to catch up - I don't think that will happen.

"We were unlucky today and just didn't get the break when we needed it."