Avram Grant was a happy man following his depleted side's 2-1 victory over Newcastle, and believes that we did enough without the help of an offside decision to win the game.

Replays showed Salomon Kalou's late winner to be offside, but Grant maintained that Chelsea had done enough for victory, pointing to a host of spurned opportunities as proof.

Regarding Kalou's goal, he said: 'I didn't see it on the television, but I think we created so many chances today that we deserved to win anyway. We did it before, and created eight or 10 good chances.

'If we want to analyse the game we see how many chances we created so I think we deserved to win,' he added.

The victory, allied to Manchester United's defeat at West Ham, closes the gap between ourselves and the summit of the Premier League to just four points, although Arsenal play this evening and could regain top spot.

Grant was satisfied with the industry shown by his team, and the determination to claim all three points despite the absence of a number of key players.

'I think we are in the picture with the race to be champions, I never give up,' he said. 'The situation sometimes is not easy, and if Man Utd didn't lose today we would continue to fight. You saw the spirit of the team today, they showed great spirit.'

With a threadbare squad and players involved who are still not 100 percent match fit, for example Michael Ballack, Grant's hand was forced as he made late substitutions.

The choice to replace the German with youngster Scott Sinclair paid dividends, as we made it 73 league games unbeaten at Stamford Bridge.

'The supporters are behind us, and know that we are not in easy times with all the problems we have. It's not easy, I think everybody remembers what happens last year with two or three injured, but today with ten injuries this is the time to speak about the players that played,' Grant explained.

'They showed good football, especially in the first half, a lot of chances, and a lot of character at the end of the game. I made substitutions because after the goal we didn't play well, Joe Cole had some problems, and Ballack hasn't played so much so he cannot do 90 minutes in our programme.

'Because of the problem I preferred to change the system, and changed to 4-2-4 and I think it changed the game, so it was a good sub. You need to think about tactics more carefully than before,' he continued.

When asked about the decision to award Ballack the captaincy for the day, Grant was happy to explain the decision, again pointing to a long list of absent candidates for the role.

'We lost many good personalities that could be captain today. Terry is captain, Lampard after, Drogba, Cech, Carvalho, Shevchenko, but we chose a player with a lot of experience, he is captain of Germany,' reasoned the Israeli.

There were also suggestions that he would have been dissatisfied with the side's inability to convert more chances into goals, but Grant was content with two, given the squad's fragile state.

'We scored two goals, it's enough. We created eight more chances to win. Always the player that doesn't play you think can help you,' he said, with reference to the injured Didier Drogba.

'Of course I want all the players to be with us, I don't want them to be injured, but they are so we need to do our best. I will not be pessimistic today,' he added.

Finally, there was the inevitable question of January transfer activity, with a busy treatment room and four players expected to depart for African Nations duty, but Grant confirmed a focus on long-term, rather than short-term investment.

'In Chelsea we are not thinking about the next month or next two months. We are thnking about the style of the team for the next years, so we need to take a decision not only for the next month,' he said.

This game can be seen in full on Chelsea TV from 6pm on Sunday. Highlights will be available on Chelsea Plus from midnight on Sunday.

If you have any thoughts after the game or stories from being at Stamford Bridge, email afterthewhistle@chelseafc.com and some will be featured on this website.