In the Stamford Bridge dressing room after Chelsea had so defiantly ground out a win over Manchester City, Antonio Conte said a few words that were followed by a spontaneous round of applause from the squad.

It was pretty natural given the feeling around the stadium was that this was likely a key title-winning victory, but the Italian insisted it was not a celebration. By contrast, it was a reminder to keep focus, “to face every game with the same concentration, with the same intensity, the same desire to fight”.

That, really, is Chelsea’s main challenge now - not the surge of Tottenham Hotspur. That is not to dismiss Mauricio Pochettino’s team, who should be respected as one of the most exciting and formidable young sides in Europe. It is just that there is such a gap between the teams at the top, and now so few games remaining, that it is really going to take a proper moment of doubt from Chelsea to see them lose the league.

Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Show all 23 1 /23 Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Thibaut Courtois - 4 Horrendous mistake for the first goal, completely mistiming his punch. Was solid in every other part of his game but matches of this magnitude are often won and lost on the small details. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Branislav Ivanovic - 6 Terrible first half performance that included three terrible errors that, fortunately for Chelsea, went unpunished. Made up for that with a brilliant pass to find Hazard for the goal and was much better after half-time. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings John Terry - 7 Made one bad error when he got underneath a long ball to allow Aguero through on goal but again proved he is the best English defender out there. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Kurt Zouma - 8 Still has huge room for improvement but the 20-year-old has all the tools to become one of the very best in the world. Deserves to be keeping England's first-choice centre-back on the sidelines. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Cesar Azpilicueta - 5 Jesus Navas had the better of his compatriot all evening. Azpilicueta was beaten in a way Chelsea fans have not often seen. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Nemanja Matic - 8 Stepped up his game in the absence of Fabregas to put in a complete midfield performance. Truly great on and off the ball, the giant Serbian was the best player on the park. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Ramires - 7 Held his position well as the holding midfielder and only made the occasional burst forward, Ramires was very good but its hard to argue that the Blues missed the wizardry of Cesc Fabregas. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Willian - 5 Hassled and harried his way through the 90 minutes, Willian was excellent in the defensive and middle thirds of the field but produced little to nothing in areas where he could do damage. Set-pieces delivery was also poor. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Oscar - 6 Another who failed to produce in the final third, Oscar played deeper than he has done for the most part this season which blunted his effectiveness Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Eden Hazard - 6 Brilliant in the first 45, causing all sorts of problems for Bacary Sagna but was extremely quiet after the break as City closed off the space around the dangerous Belgian. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Loic Remy - 7 Was brilliant in the lone striker role, holding the ball up well to bring his team-mates into the game. Great movement to find space for the goal, it was a shame for Chelsea that the trio behind him starved the striker of service. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Joe Hart - 6 Nothing he could do about the goal and was hardly tested otherwise by the home side. Looked reasonably solid throughout, bar one dodgy kick. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Bacary Sagna - 6 Struggled in the first half against Hazard but grew into it as it went on, to snuff out the Hazard threat. Combined excellently with Jesus Navas. Lost Hazard for the goal. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Vincent Kompany - 7 Defender manfully, though he wasn't always the most comfrotable in possession. In truth, Chelsea didn't offer much threat. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Martin Demichelis - 7 Had an excellent match but went to sleep to allow Loic Remy to steal into yards of space for the goal. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Gael Clichy - 8 Didn't put a foot wrong on the left and never gave Willian the chance to do anything of note in the final third. Offered a good outlet going forward as well. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Fernandinho - 7 Was one of the best City performers with a display full of energy and purpose. Pushed the visitors forward, passed well and was not averse to stopping Chelsea by any means necessary. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Fernando - 7 Gave Matic as good as he got in midfield and provided the City defence with superb cover throughout the game. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Jesus Navas - 7 Gave Cesar Azpilicueta the hardest game he's played all season but for all the occasions he beat his opposite number he failed to deliver that telling ball. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings James Milner - 7 Barely troubled Ivanovic as an attacking force but you can't downplay his importance to the City cause as a worker and defender. Getty Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings David Silva - 7 Was not able to offer his usual craft when in possession as he was well marshalled by Matic and Ramires, but got an absolutely vital touch to turn Aguero's shot past Ivanovic. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Sergio Aguero - 5 Five games since returning from injury and the usually lethal striker is misfiring. Latched on to a Terry mistake to race through on goal for a chance that a pre-injury Aguero would have tucked away - he fired wide. Chelsea vs Manchester City player ratings Frank Lampard - 5 The stage looked set for another Lampard goal against his former club but it was not to be. Given a great ovation at the end from his former supporters. Getty Images

The intrigue, and truly elevating difference in a title race, is how you actually manage it. It is easier said than done, especially when so many former champions and chasers talk of “the downer” a player would feel on coming in from a massive win… only to find out their main challengers had just managed the same feat.

Then there’s the doubt that would genuinely enter minds if they do have a slip-up, and the very next game begins with difficulty. As Liverpool’s former league-winning full-back Jim Beglin says, “pressure would just hit, and then you would get panicky”. They would start making mistakes they hadn’t been.

Conte admitted on Wednesday his English isn’t yet good enough to talk through it all and psychologically charge his players in the way he did in Serie A with Juventus, but that the benefit of Chelsea's current position is that he can actually just use his hands. He can hold up his fingers to signify how many games they now need to win to win the title.

That may sound simplistic, but it would likely chime with so many league winners, because it is remarkable how many refer to similar ‘countdowns’ and how genuinely powerful they are in terms of focusing minds.

Towards the end of Manchester United’s treble season, first-team coach Jim Ryan would come in after another win and declare “12 to go, boys”, ticking off another step to greatness. When Valencia won what is now a landmark Spanish title in 2001-02, then, assistant coach Pako Ayestaran used the same principle but in a slightly different way.

“We would say it was like a flight of stairs to making history,” Ayestaran says. “Every time they won, it was one step higher, six then five then four. It allows them to focus on the present.”

That is what truly elevates what seems an elementary approach. In a situation where it is all too easy for players to get distracted by the big prize at the end, but then allow themselves to get into difficulty by mentally overstating the importance of any little individual error, it fosters concentration; it creates a mindset that just gets the next job done. If it sounds like a variation on ‘taking every game as it comes’, the point is that the players are at a stage where that genuinely must become a clinching mindset, rather than just a cliché that has lost meaning. It is instead the key to winning. It gets the players into what 1997-98 title winner Ian Wright has previously described as a “mental cocoon”.

This, again, directly translates into physical actions on the pitch. Rather than players being influenced by panic and letting errors lead to other errors, they instead imbue every individual touch and tackle with that higher-plane intensity. It has an effect. It gets them through games where they might not necessarily be on their finest form.

Antonio Conte saw his Chelsea side edge closer towards the Premier League title with a win over Manchester City (Getty)

There was a perfect illustration in that 1997-98 Arsenal win. Arsene Wenger’s side had been on a sensational winning run only to run into trouble just as they were coming to the brink of glory against a Derby County side who had already beaten them earlier in the season. They just weren’t on anything like the same luscious form. Derby were putting it up to them, nothing was coming off for Arsenal, and they had to fight for everything. But they were ready for that fight. They were in that cocoon. Just when yet another attack seemed to break down against a sturdy Derby defence, Marc Overmars of all people made a midfield fighter’s tackle at the edge of the box, and Emmanuel Petit powered it in for the only goal.

After the game, captain Tony Adams came into the dressing room and just roared “that’s how it’s got to be done, boys. That’s how it’s got to be done.” The message was clear. Sublime as Arsenal’s football had been to get them into position, it was going to require other qualities to make the best of it. It was going to require Conte’s ‘concentration, desire and fight’.