Mauricio Pochettino praised his Chelsea team for keeping hold of their momentum and carrying out the game plan away at Manchester City.
The Blues were unlucky not to win in a 1-1 draw at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday night after Raheem Sterling opened the scoring in the first half.
Rodri hit back with a late second-half effort to equalise and ensure that both sides took home a point.
After an outstanding performance, Pochettino was full of praise for his team.
“It's about the players to deliver on the job,” he said. “They showed character today.
“I think we tried to prepare, all the coaching staff, to prepare and make the game plan and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
“But football is a game that belongs to the players and today the execution and performance was from them.
"We know very well how Manchester City play here at the Etihad and it's important to sustain the capacity to dominate and force you to play deep.
“And if you are not brave enough when you have the ball and you force them to run back and make effort, then it's going to be like in the second half, you cannot leave your box or own half.
"For us, it was a really important game to keep the momentum, to realise we are in a good way and improving.
“Still we are not at the level of Manchester City but that is our aim and of course, we are a very young team that needs this type of game to improve and to create a spirit that we need to show in every single game.
"You want to be competitive because I think from the beginning we were one of the best teams in the way we perform, create chances and I think after 15 games, we deserved to be in the top four.
“But football is not only to show good quality and be nice, it's to be competitive and today the team has definitely showed we can be competitive also and play well."
It was important for Chelsea to perform well, regardless of the result, with the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool coming up at Wembley next Sunday.
Pochettino admitted that keeping his players confident ahead of the showpiece was important and singled out Raheem Sterling, who hadn’t scored a goal from open play since November.
"Of course. It's important, his experience and of course an offensive player needs to score to feel confidence and he was working really hard for the team,” the Argentine added.
“He defended well, he was always in the right position to help the team when needing to make the effort, being in a position to help the defensive line, [Ben] Chilwell.
"Yes, so important performance. So happy and he is helping to achieve a good point for us."
