Jose Mourinho praised Chelsea fans for their support of Fernando Torres during the dramatic 2-1 victory against Manchester City.
Torres was guilty of an appalling miss in the first half when he lifted the ball over the bar after being found unmarked by Ramires.
But the Spaniard went on to create the opening goal for Andre Schurrle and hit the woodwork with a cracking strike before scoring a late winner.
And Blues boss Mourinho declared: “The fans were amazing. They see how hard he works for the team.
“When a striker misses an easy chance it can affect them for the rest of the game, but it looked like at that moment that he decided he would be the man of the match.
“We are happy for him and we are happy because it was an important victory against a team we couldn’t beat last year.
“Even better is the feeling that we played so well against a fantastic team.”
Chelsea looked like having to settle for a draw after Sergio Aguero had hauled City level.
But there was a late twist, with Torres scoring into an empty net having chased defender Matija Nastasic, who inadvertently headed past City keeper Joe Hart.
Mourinho said: “First of all, my sympathy is with City because I know what it is like to lose in the last minute – it is a very difficult feeling. But of course it is a great moment for us.
“I think in the first half we were fantastic against a fantastic team. We were better than them and that’s not easy.
“We could have scored three goals in the first half – the goal, when Fernando hit the post and the one he missed.
“In the second half we played against a great team and they scored. After that it was 50-50 and could have gone either way.
“They were happy with a point and then the goal came. It was a misunderstanding but Fernando was very clever.”
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This post was last modified on 27/10/2013