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It wasn't rocket science.
"We played very badly in the first half but very well in the second half, that's what we needed."
-Andre Schurrle; source: Chelsea FC
The first half was atrocious. The second half was amazing. Clichéd as ever, but it once again was a game of two halves.
"Maybe the first half was the period for them to take the lactate from their muscles because it is removed from your system with low intensity muscular activity, and because they were walking on the pitch or running slowly, maybe they were cleaning their muscles for the second half and were ready to do what they did. This was really what you call the game of two halves. The first half was very poor and the second half was brilliant."
-Jose Mourinho; source: Chelsea FC
Most importantly, Chelsea got the three points at Craven Cottage, which, despite the lackluster first half showing, always looked in the bag after famed and annoying Chelsea-killer Clint Dempsey missed a somewhat easy header to put the hosts ahead just a few minutes into the contest. André Schürrle's hat trick (combined with a couple sumptuous assists from Eden Hazard) was a fitting way to say goodbye to West London Derbies for the foreseeable future.
More importantly, Chelsea have opened up a four-point gap on Liverpool and Arsenal - the latter of whom fell at the Britannia and at the feet of Chelsea hero Jonathan Walters - and a six-point gap on Manchester City who, in all fairness, do have two games-in-hand and a vastly superior goal difference. The clubhouse lead is ours to lose.
We have 63 points after 28 matches. Except for 2006-07, we have never not won the title after accumulating 63 points from 28 matches. In fact, in 2009-10 we only had 61. We may not be the swashbuckling side fired by Florent Malouda and Didier Drogba and Carlo Ancelotti, but we're getting it done and getting it done more efficiently via best-in-class defending and scoring by committee. André Schürrle's hat trick made him the fifth Chelsea player to reach the five-goal checkpoint in the Premier League.
There are ten matches left in the 2013-14 Barclays Premier League season. We have nine winnable and one away date at Anfield left. It's time to start believing.