ANDRE Villas-Boas hailed his players for the turnaround against Man City – and their general reversal of fortunes in the past few games.

Not so long ago, the Blues were on their knees after home defeats by Arsenal and Liverpool and the controversial defeat at QPR. European elimination was also a real possibility.

But Monday night's 2-1 victory over Manchester City had given them – and everyone else – hope once more as far the title is concerned and it represents a great fightback by his players, he said.

“After that run of bad results we had, we found the confidence which grew game after game and I think we put in a very good challenge against the league leaders,” said the Blues boss.

“We had the belief and self confidence to come back. We deserve credit for what we've been achieving in a difficult period.

“The bad run of results needed the change and we got the change in the most massive games that we had to chase. The players deserve credit for that.”

Villas-Boas continued: “It was a very good win for the players tonight. They constantly adapted to the different nature of the game, going 1-0 down so early in the game.

“That made things very very difficult because it gave Man City even more motivation and more belief that they could get away with a good result here – so a good strength of character and resilience was shown once again.

“I think we did very very well second half to find that detail that would take us through to win the three points”

The Blues boss added: “It's a very gratifying win for us and it changes a little bit our challenge for the Premier League. Seven points in this Premier League with so many teams competing for the title, it's nothing.

“But for our title challenge to continue to be alive, we will have to continue to be competent through the December fixtures. We need to continue to build on what we are doing.”

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