Enzo Maresca continued to pour cold water on his side's Premier League title aspirations despite Chelsea moving within two points of Liverpool.
A 2-1 win over Brentford at Stamford Bridge on Sunday saw the Blues close the gap at the top after Liverpool could only draw against Fulham on Saturday.
Goals from Marc Cucurella, who was sent off after full-time, and Nicolas Jackson got the job done but they had to hold out as Bryan Mbeumo pulled one back for Brentford towards the end.
Maresca is convinced his side are not yet ready for a title challenge, and despite a fifth straight win he still believes there are issues his players need to solve before they can call themselves challengers, with Brentford's late goal a first is. example.
“It's not about how many games we win, it's about being realistic,” Maresca told BBC Sport.
“There are things we have to do better. If you see the goal we conceded, it was a throw-in for us, 90 minutes.”
“The team that is ready to fight for [the title] use the ball properly.”
Excellent form in the #PL. #CFC | #CHEBRE pic.twitter.com/cV80vwxCUA
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Chelsea had 26 shots, eight of which were on target, and Maresca believes they should have left the result long before Mbeumo ended up in the stands.
He added: “In the first half we controlled the game. We could have scored more goals.
“The second half, except for the last ten minutes where we struggled, which is normal, we deserved to win the game.”
Cucurella was shown a second yellow card after the final whistle for dissent and Maresca wants to see more maturity from his side in the future.
“I didn't see the second yellow card. The referee said the second yellow card was for a bad attitude. There are things we can do better,” he said.
“I said we have a lot of things we can do better, and this [Cucurella’s red card] is one of them.”
Brentford boss Thomas Frank, meanwhile, was happy with what he saw from his team, who have taken just one point on the road all season.
The Dane told BBC Sport: “We played a very good game here. We were unlucky not to draw. We missed some big chances in the end.
“We managed to draw level with Chelsea for 90 minutes, especially in the second half. A draw would have been fair.
“Chelsea are a very good team, well coached and very good players.
“They are playing with confidence and credit to them for pushing us back in the first half. They are at the top of the title race. They are very good.”
“If you look at today's performance against a top team that will be trying to win the title until the end of the season, the way they celebrated it was clear that they respected us and that we could have easily got something.”
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