Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho insists that they will keep battling for the Premier League title but cannot get too excited about going back to the top of the table as they do not have their own destiny in their hands.
The Blues returned to the summit after a 3-0 win over Stoke at Stamford Bridge, with Mohamed Salah, Frank Lampard and Willian on target.
Mourinho ruled out Chelsea's title bid after their loss to Crystal Palace last week, and his opinion has not changed.
"We have five matches to play in the Premier League and we have to try to win all five and after we try to win match after match...at the end of the season see how many points we have and which one is our position,"
"We don't depend on ourselves and we never did. I was waiting for the moment where we could be top of the league and depend on ourselves and I was waiting for that moment to say 'yes, now, we are candidates because we depend on ourselves', but that never happened."
Mourinho admitted he is not happy about so many teams having games-in-hand in the Premier League.
"In such an important league as ours, I don't think it's possible to have so many matches in hand, you have to wait two months and it creates difficulties for all the teams - top and bottom," he insisted.
"The table is again fake. The table is again with lots of matches in hand.
"You look to the top part of the table and, some teams, they have more matches than others. You look to the relegation area and it's exactly the same. In the top of the league we cannot say we need X points to be champions.
"If you look at the relegation area, Fulham or Cardiff or Norwich, they cannot say 'we need this number of points to survive', because they don't know, because Sunderland have matches in hand.
"This, in the best league in the world, I don't think is the best image we are giving and it's not the best situation.
"To play matches in hand in the last week of the season, I don't think is adapted to this top football country. We depend too much on other results."
He added: "With Liverpool we have to play against them, so we have one match we have three points to discuss with them - with Manchester City we do not play so they have their destiny in their hands and the only thing we can do is to continue to win matches."
Happy
Mourinho was very happy with how his side bounced back from their recent run of defeats.
"I think they played well, normally after defeats you don't start confident and I think that is what happened but they went in that direction and we went in first-half winning one-nil but it could have been three-nil as we played really well in last 20 minutes of the first half," he said.
"In the second half with the second goal - the game is over and after that everyone is in control and the players some can rest, and others can keep improving their condition and that is what we have to do from now until the end of the season.
"I think the team played well, and that is the direction I look at - solid defensively and we did not give them many chances, but that was only possibly because of contribution of all the players, even Salah and players from the side we got a good defensive contribution. Salah was very lively and Willian in the number 10 position."
Mourinho insisted he was pleased with Fernando Torres, despite the Spaniard failing to score.
"Fernando, it was important for him to play 90 minutes and it is a pity he doesn't score as goals give him more confidence but the fact he was on the pitch for 90 minutes and the team playing that way was the most important thing."
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