Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho praised Pompey after his side maintained their title charge by winning the "battle" of Fratton Park.

Mourinho made his first trip to Portsmouth with the championship favourites and saw late goals from Arjen Robben and Joe Cole extend Chelsea's lead at the top to eight points.

Robben's deflected left-footed strike from the edge of the penalty area gave Chelsea a 79th minute lead, and substitute Cole secured the points with a clinical first time strike in injury time.

It meant Mourinho left the south coast a relieved man.

He said: "Our opponent was good, they made it very difficult. It was a battle for us and I knew before we came here that it would be difficult because the pitch is small and the players make it even smaller because they press a lot.

"The people here have a good philosophy, the players and the organisation is good and at the end I told my players that this was a really big victory for us. My players and the Portsmouth players showed that they are both top characters in a high tempo game.

"After playing Villa and Crystal Palace just two 48 hours ago, both teams were fantastic."

Once again Pompey were indebted to Shaka Hislop, who produced stunning saves in each half from Didier Drogba and another in the 69th minute from substitute Eidur Gudjohnsen before Robben netted his seventh goal of the season.

But Pompey had the best chances of the first half. Yakubu had a goal disallowed for handball in the 19th minute and 60 seconds later a powerful 30-yard drive from Nigel Quashie was tipped over by Peter Cech.

Mourinho added: "I was happy that half-time arrived because we didn't have control of the game, we hadn't created one single good chance to score.

"They had a fantastic shot that I thought was in but Peter produced an incredible save. But when half-time arrived I was able to talk to my players and try to persuade them that this was not a game to show our quality but a game to show we want to be champions."

Frank Lampard was becoming increasingly frustrated by the effective man marking from Amdy Faye and both were given a talking to by referee Alan Wiley after clashing at the start of the second half.

As the nephew of Saints boss Harry Redknapp, England midfielder Lampard was subjected to inevitable abuse and he struggled to silence the Fratton Park crowd, so effective were the shackles applied by Faye.

Lampard was unusually quiet as an attacking threat but Gudjohnsen twice went close.

Within a minute of replacing Drogba and with his back to goal, the Icelandic international hooked over from six yards after a Robben corner had caused havoc.

And Gudjohnsen forced Hislop to save with his legs soon after Ricardo Fuller and Yakubu had missed the target from long range midway through the second half.

That was as close as Pompey came to breaking the deadlock, but the game looked like it would finish as a goalless thriller.

Robben took his shirt off, pictured, to celebrate after seeing his crucial goal deflect off Matt Taylor and then Cole,a replacement for former Pompey loan star Alexei Smertin, swept home his third goal of the season in injury time with his weaker left foot.

Mourinho added: "Our spirit was magnificent, and by the end we deserved to win.

"For 75 minutes the tempo was very good but the first goal broke Portsmouth mentally, which is normal."

Pompey coach Joe Jordan recognised the similarities with his side's home defeat against the other London gianrs, Arsenal, nine days earlier.

He said: "We've kept another quality team and its danger men quiet for long periods but were harshly done by again.

"Shaka would have saved Robben's shot but the deflection took it beyond him.

"The players are very down but if they play like that here against Norwich on New Year's Day, we'll be all right."