Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez was pleased with his side's performance, while Fulham boss Martin Jol felt his team deserved better in the first 45 in their English Premier League London Derby at Craven Cottage Wednesday.
Fulham were the better side in the first 30 minutes of the game, but a brilliant 30-yard strike from David Luiz turned things around, before a header from John Terry made it 2-0 at halftime.
The Chelsea skipper then went on to score from a corner in the second half to complete a satisfying 3-0 win over their London rivals.
"We had confidence, we knew it was a derby and we had to do well," Benitez said. "The way that we played, especially in the second half, I was really pleased with the team and we saw a lot of positives.
"We knew when we scored the second they would come at us and we would have space. The team was well organised and we were defending well.
"We had some chances on the counter-attack and maybe could have done a bit better in those situations, but you cannot complain when you score three goals away."
The three points took Chelsea back to third, one ahead of Arsenal, while Tottenham and Everton remain well in contention for that top-four place.
The Blues have to face both Spurs and Everton in the final few games, and Benitez is confident his side can pull off the necessary results and keep their Champions League place intact.
"They are difficult matches but we have quality," he added. "If you ask them (the opponents) they will say it's a difficult match because they are playing against Chelsea.
"We must have confidence and belief and hopefully we can stay up there. The race for the top four will be until the end of the season.
"If we continue winning and they (Tottenham, Arsenal and Everton) keep on winning, those games against Tottenham and Everton will be even more important."
Fulham manager Jol felt his side should have made more of their dominance in the first half hour.
"The frustration is playing well for the first half an hour, creating three or four chances, including in the first few minutes when Bryan Ruiz could have scored, and then conceding a goal because we didn't close Luiz down," the Dutchman said.
"For the first 30 minutes our possession play was good. We played with four attacking players. We decided to have a good go at them but they're a strong team -- you only have to look at the players who came back into the team such as John Terry, who scored two goals.
"They're a fantastic team but I'm still disappointed that we didn't achieve more in the first 30 minutes."
