Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri challenged his players to show more consistency in their 'mentality' following their 5-0 mauling over the Premier League's bottom of the pile Huddersfield Town.
The 60-year-old manager had the pressure eased on his fading Chelsea tenure following embarrassing defeats to Bournemouth and Arsenal, but his team rallied together to produce a unified performance that saw the Blues earn their biggest victory of the season.
It was crucial that Chelsea responded from their 4-0 crushing at the Vitality Stadium only three days ago, and Sarri was pleased with the performance that temporarily took his team into the top-four.
In his post-match press conference, Sarri said: "I think that we started really very well."
"From the first 25-30 minutes, I saw my football. We moved the ball really very fast, with good movements without the ball, and were really dangerous every two minutes.
"I'm happy because we played for 90 minutes, and defended for 90 minutes. So I think that, today, we played a very good match. But, as you know very well, we need consistency now."
A crucial month ahead for the Blues
The Londerners opened their February account with a much-needed win as Chelsea fell out of the top four places for the first time this season. Braces from Gonzalo Higuain and Eden Hazard, as well as a headed effort from David Luiz, ensured the Blues temporarily leapfrogged the fourth-placed Arsenal.
Chelsea won just one of their four January league fixtures - only scoring twice - as the pressure mounted on the former Napoli boss and Sarri highlighted the importance of the upcoming February period usually considered the most significant of the league campaign.
"It will be very difficult, also for our opponents I think", said the Chelsea boss.
"Of course, at the moment, we have to be happy about our season because we are in February and we are involved in four different competitions.
"We know very well we have to fight if we want to stay in the top four in the table, and then we have to try to win something.
"It will be really very difficult. If you think in the Carabao Cup, we had to play against Liverpool, Tottenham, we will have to play against City.
"It's like a Champions League, I think. Here in England, everything is really difficult. The championship is really very competitive. We need consistency now in the results, but also in performances."
Higuain opens Chelsea account
On a day where Sarri's players showcased the response their manager desired, it was also a match where Higuain justified the obsession his former Napoli boss had with the on-loan Juventus striker who was outstanding to open his Chelsea account for the season.
Higuain - who scored 36 league goals under Sarri in Serie A in 2016 - was utterly dexterous in his link-up play alongside Hazard and his second goal was the pick of the bunch as the Argentine forward curled an exquisite effort into the top corner past a helpless Jonas Lossl.
At 31, the former Real Madrid man was considered a player Chelsea don't usually dip in the market for considering the peak years are undoubtedly behind the forward, but his display in front of the home fans justified why Sarri was so desperate in bringing Higuain's services to Stamford Bridge.
When asked about whether his performance against the Terriers proved the club right in pursuing the forward, Sarri said: "I don't know."
"I know very well that, when he arrived, he wasn't at the top of his physical condition.
"Now he is improving. I'm really very happy because, apart from the goals, my feeling is he's really suitable to play very close to Eden.
"I think that, on the pitch, they are really very suitable to play one close to the other. For us, this is very useful for Higuain because he will be able to score a lot of goals, but also for Eden."
Sarri - We should not have to lose a game to add motivation
Chelsea players in recent weeks were described by their manager as "difficult to motivate". The performances against Arsenal and Bournemouth more than justified Sarri's ill-spoken remarks.
However, the Blues latest victory personified their inconsistency this season. The 2017 Premier League champions pick and choose their moments which called for Sarri to question the team's mentality.
Following the Blues efforts to right the wrongs in the south coast only three days ago, Sarri expressed his belief that players shouldn't need defeats to fix-up a response.
"We should not have to lose a game to add motivation", added the Blues boss.
"We need to improve in this: the consistency, the mentality. Today they were really very motivated, but we lost 4-0 in the last match.
"So they had to react. Now we have to understand that the level of motivation must be the same in every match."
The defeat at Bournemouth was the club's biggest loss in 23 years as Eddie Howe put Chelsea to the sword for the second season running a year and a day to their emphatic win at the Bridge just a year ago.
It was crucial that Sarri's team put their 4-0 crushing quickly to bed but it was important for the players to show that a performance on the embarrassing scale of Wednesday night would never occur again for the magnitude of this Chelsea side.
Asked whether a similar performance at Bournemouth couldn't occur again Sarri said: "I'm not sure, but I hope so."
"As I said before, we need to improve the mentality, we have to arrive at every match with the same level of determination and motivation, and we don't need to lose a match to have the right motivation.
"So we need to improve. We'll try, of course, to improve.
"We need to improve our mentality. If you do that, then you don't need to be motivated because you arrive in the match with a very good level of motivation. So we need to improve the mentality in general."