The Blues bounced back from a run of three defeats in their last four games in all competitions to win 3-0 at Newcastle and ease themselves back into the top four in the process.

They now face a crunch Champions League clash with Valencia on Tuesday ahead of City's visit to Stamford Bridge next Monday evening, and Villas-Boas is relishing the tasks ahead.

He said: "Regarding the Premier League and bearing in mind the fact that last weekend was a good win for us against Wolves and not a long time ago, we won against Blackburn away, we are making good progress.

"We recovered two points last week, we have recovered one position in the league against Newcastle, and we will have to wait on this weekend's results.

"We hope that Premier League fortunes are inverting for us. It's a good three points at a very, very difficult ground.

"We have a major, major game on Tuesday against Valencia. We hope to go through it and if we do, we set up the right emotional stimulus to take on the league leaders and hopefully further shorten the distance to them."

Just how different the game might have been had Chelsea defender David Luiz been sent off rather than booked after just four minutes for dragging down Demba Ba, a crowd of 52,305 will never know.

But Chelsea took full advantage with a powerful performance which suggested rumours of their demise have been exaggerated.

Had it not been for Magpies keeper Tim Krul, who made a string of superb saves including one from a 14th-minute Frank Lampard penalty, the could have won handsomely.

But by the same token, Petr Cech had to be at his best to keep out Ba's 24th-minute flick, while the woodwork denied Newcastle an equaliser on three occasions, one of them from Drogba as he helped to defend a corner.

It was his 38th-minute header which set the visitors on their way, although they had to wait until the death for first substitute Salomon Kalou and then the impressive Daniel Sturridge

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew was at a loss to explain referee Mike Dean's lenience with Luiz, and was not convinced by the answer he got when he spoke to the official at the break.

He said: "I thought he was going to be sent off. It was the fourth minute of the game, but it doesn't really matter when that moment arrives.

"He [Ba] was in on goal, he was in behind Luiz, the goalie was not going to get to the ball, therefore it's a goalscoring opportunity, and he brought him down.

"I couldn't quite understand why he didn't send him off. I was really angry about it because if that had happened at Old Trafford with one of my players, one of my players would have walked, and I thought he would have walked today.

"The referee said to me at half-time that he [Ba] didn't have control of the ball.

"I am not quite sure of the rule book, so I need to get that out and have a look at it."

Villas-Boas, who confirmed that transfer requests from Alex and Nicolas Anelka had been accepted, admitted Luiz might have been fortunate, but was full of praise for his players.

He said: "They were amazing and show fantastic team and fighting spirits when everything is against them, when they are in the newspapers being questioned.

"We don't know why because we have full belief in them and today, it was a much-deserved win for them and the praise should be shared by all of them."

Pardew, whose selection problems grew with injuries to central defenders Fabricio Coloccini, who has a thigh strain, and Steven Taylor, who suffered a suspected serious Achilles problem, was less than impressed by Chelsea fitness coach Jose Mario Rocha, who celebrated Kalou's strike in front of the Newcastle bench.

He said: "The manager apologised for that. He carried himself with dignity today because he was under a lot of pressure, their manager.

"But his staff let him down today and I am sure he will be having a little word in his ear."