Last Updated: Sun, 01 Apr 2012 15:30
Roberto Di Matteo has expressed his delight at Chelsea's fighting spirit after seeing his side keep alive their Champions League hopes.
The Blues have given themselves a real chance of finishing in the Premier League's top four after a run of six wins from eight games since Di Matteo took over as acting manager from Andre Villas-Boas.
Once again, the Italian was celebrating again on Saturday evening after seeing him team turn up the heat on Arsenal and Tottenham with a 4-2 victory at Aston Villa.
Chelsea did make hard work of the win as they let a two goal advantage slip as James Collins and Eric Lichaj found the back of the net to cancel out efforts by Daniel Sturridge and Branislav Ivanovic.
However, Ivanovic popped up again to restore the Blues lead before Fernando Torres' rediscover his scoring boots in injury-time with his first top-flight goal for six months.
Di Matteo said: "Apart from five minutes when Villa scored twice, we controlled the game very well, and had one or two chances to score more goals.
"It was great spirit by the team to react to that double setback because it could have gone the other way as well. We could have capitulated.
"The players found an extra gear at the end but that is the quality of these players.
"We have that in the squad and we showed that again but I'm so happy about the spirit that we are showing at the moment.
"We don't give up and we believe to the end of the game.
"We've always said we will try to the end of the season. We are playing catch-up. That is our situation.
"The only thing we can do is try to win our games and keeping putting pressure on the top four.
"The top four is certainly a priority for us. It is crucial for us to finish there."
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