Grant hails Anelka cameo

Goals in each half from Juliano Belletti and Shaun Wright-Phillips helped Chelsea to close the gap at the top of the Premier League, but Anelka was denied a debut goal by Spurs keeper Radek Cerny and the woodwork.

Grant said: "Anelka played without having one training session with us. He very quickly got into the style of the team and was part of the game. He hit the bar one time and the goalkeeper made a good save from him. So you cannot ask any more from his first performance."

Grant revealed that he had no plans to use the striker but an injury to Claudio Pizarro forced him to introduce Anelka into the action, saying: "We are very short of strikers, Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou are in Africa and Andriy Shevchenko is injured. Pizarro got injured so we had to use him."

Chelsea are now closing in on the leaders and with injured players like captain John Terry, midfielder Frank Lampard plus their African Nations Cup contingent to return, the Blues are beginning to look real title contenders again.

Grant added: "I am very pleased for many things. First I am pleased that we have won so many games but more pleased by the way we have done it. We changed the style a little bit but not much and even without so many players, we keep looking to play good football. I am very happy. Our target is to win games and always play positive football."

Grant also praised the performance of Wright-Phillips, who scored another important goal on the back of the one he notched against Everton in the Carling Cup semi-final in midweek.

Grant said: "Shaun was excellent for me. We needed him to play in midfield and then we need him to play as a striker in the last 10 minutes and he scored a fantastic goal. He also worked hard in the midfield and played intelligent football. He was very good."

Tottenham boss Juande Ramos claimed the result flattered Chelsea even though they troubled Blues keeper Petr Cech on just one occasion in 90 minutes.

Ramos said: "It was a very evenly balanced game. Domination of the game passed from one side to the other. But that balance was not reflected in the scoreline. Chelsea grabbed two goals from outside the penalty area but in terms of domination of the game, it wasn't reflected in the scoreline."