Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho was full of praise for Aston Villa's offensive department after his side's 2-1 away win at Villa Park.
The Blues had to work hard to battle past a determined Villa side and Mourinho was delighted to take all three points and increase the lead at the top of the table.
"I like Aston Villa's team. They have very good players," Mourinho told BBC Sport.
"It is difficult to believe Villa are where they are. I wanted to analyse them not because of the points they have, or the goals they don't score, but by the quality of the players.
"It was a very difficult game, the stadium is a difficult place to go."
The Portuguese was also very happy with the performance of referee Neil Swarbrick, one month after being charged by the Football Association for claiming that there is an "anti-campaign" against his Chelsea team.
"The referee was very, very good. Very, very good in the way he controlled the emotions of the game," he said.
"Sooner or later Villa had to score and they did it today. They have so many good players, with runners in attack.
"They put Benteke on in the second half, they had Cole, Sinclair and Gil behind the striker, three very creative players. It makes it very difficult to play against them, so this is a very important victory for us.
"It is one more hurdle in the title race, but there are many more. Every game is difficult. It is possibly the only league in Europe where teams from the bottom can play against the top ones and not just make things difficult but win points."
With Manchester City only managing a draw against Hull City, Chelsea's lead at the top is now of seven points but Mourinho insists that he is only focused on his team.
"I like [that Manchester City dropped points]," Mourinho said.
"But that was not my concern today. I was never in the game asking for that result. We have to think about us and focus on our matches."
