The Blues were worthy winners against Southampton despite a spirited start from the visitors where they offered a threat on the counter.

Once Christopher Nkunku opened the scoring with a close-range header midway through the first half, a Chelsea win never seemed in doubt and Pedro Neto and Levi Colwill increased the scoring before the interval.

We were totally dominant in the second half and could have added more than the one goal, which came courtesy of Marc Cucurella following some great play by Academy graduate Tyrique George.

The victory - plus Bournemouth's 2-1 defeat at Brighton & Hove - means Chelsea are now fourth in the Premier League table, with fifth-placed Manchester City and Newcastle United in sixth both two points behind and playing tomorrow.

Maresca said: ‘It was very important because we know from now on every game is important. We are happy to get three points, knowing that if we get three points then we will be up there [in the table] but if we don’t win then we will drop a little bit so it is about how we manage our emotions until the end.

‘For sure, we were happy with the performance but we were happy at Villa because the performance was very good but we just didn’t win. But tonight we are very happy.’

Our victory over Southampton followed back-to-back defeats away to Aston Villa and Brighton & Hove Albion, with two victories in our previous ten Premier League matches prior to tonight.

Maresca acknowledged this has been our 'worst moment' of the season but believes the fact we are still in fourth and only a point below third-place Nottingham Forest shows how impressive we had been earlier in the campaign.

Maresca added: ‘I just said to the players that we are in our worst moment in terms of results but we are fourth and one point from third and that is us in our worst moment. So that means a lot and also shows how good we have been in the first part of the season and now it is just a matter of trying to finish in the best way.’