Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho felt West Bromwich Albion made life extremely difficult for his side in the second half on Saturday.
The league-leading Blues led the Baggies 2-0 at half-time at Stamford Bridge after goals from Diego Costa and Eden Hazard before midfielder Claudio Yacob was sent off in the 29th minute for a two-footed challenge on Costa.
Chelsea's first-half performance was so threatening that Albion could have been excused for losing by much more but Alan Irvine's men held strong for the second lot of 45 minutes to completely limit the damage.
Mourinho told Sky Sports: "In the second half with 10 men I think they did very, very well they didn't try to discuss the points of the game it is impossible to do it with 10 men for such a long time, but they played very well, very well organised and keep that short result.
"Instead of blaming my players because I could feel the intensity of our game went a little bit down, but instead of being negative with my players I prefer to praise in the fair way West Brom did in the second half."
The victory puts Chelsea on 32 points from 12 matches, seven points ahead of Southampton, while West Brom sit 13th with just 13 points.
