Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho believed his side were "comfortable" in beating Tottenham on Saturday.
Samuel Eto'o, Eden Hazard and Demba Ba (two) scored the goals at Stamford Bridge as the Blues opened up a significant advantage at the head of the Premier League.
"I'm not saying they gave up, but I think they felt like they were in trouble," said Mourinho.
"In the first half they had a lot of the ball. I think they are a team with great control of ball possession but they don't hurt people.
"The second half was comfortable for us."
"What I can say now clearly is that it is very, very difficult if we don't get a top-four position," he added.
"I can say now objective number one in the Premier League is in our pocket. Now our next objective is top three because that gives us [automatic] qualification to the Champions League."
Mourinho also hailed Samuel Eto'o, who was only handed a starting berth when Fernando Torres got injured in the warm-up.
"I told him before the game, 'you are going to score for sure' because he was supposed to be on the bench," said Mourinho.
"Fernando was supposed to start the game. A couple of minutes before the game, he was not able to play and I thought 'this is your destiny'.
Mourinho also admitted he enjoyed the striker's celebration, which appeared to reference the Portuguese's uncertainly over his name: "I didn't suggest it, but I knew it [was coming]. The best way to defuse a situation is to make fun.
"Some newspapers did great with photoshop. Now they don't need photoshop, they have the real thing."
