Chelsea boss Rafa Benitez feels they played up to their potential for last night's stunning 8-0 thrashing of Aston Villa.

They are still some way behind Manchester United in the title race, trailing the Red Devils by 11 points, but seem to be warming to the battle, which is something Benitez always knew was possible.

When asked if other teams would now be fearing them, Benitez said: "No. They knew Chelsea were a top side before, and still are. They will be dangerous and will have game-plans and ideas. Maybe they will be more careful playing against us, but they had a lot of respect for Chelsea before.

"Today we have that game-plan and idea. We knew they (Villa) would be dangerous in counter-attacks, so we were trying to stop them with the way we wanted to attack, and everything went to plan.

"The main thing is to win our games. You can do that if you can see the team improving. I'm sure it will be closer. We'll try to be as close as possible, but you can see the mentality of the team; even after six goals they were still pushing forward for more.

"I can see the team improving the little things we wanted to improve, but still we can improve some things and I say that after winning by eight."