Arsene Wenger said his Arsenal players believe they can overturn a 3-1 deficit against Monaco in the Uefa Champions League on Tuesday, but the manager is less confident about their chances of winning the Premier League.
Goals from Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini secured a 3-0 win over West Ham United that left Arsenal in a buoyant mood ahead of their challenging last-16, second-leg trip to Monaco.
It also moved them six points behind Chelsea in the league table, albeit with the leaders having two games in hand.
So, Wenger was asked, are Arsenal back in the title race?
"Not at the moment," he said. "We just keep going. We have won eight of the last nine."
While it might be too late for Arsenal to mount a title charge, Wenger claimed it was only the effects of the World Cup that prevented his side being in a position to put more pressure on Chelsea.
He said they are now a better, more fluent, team because the players have come to know each other.
"We are a different team. We suffered a lot, post-World Cup," he said.
"What is for sure is the players understand each other much better than six or seven months ago and that makes everyone much more dangerous."
That could be seen throughout Saturday's game at the Emirates Stadium, especially for the first goal from Giroud on 45 minutes.
Arsenal had laid siege to the West Ham goal, although without reward, because goalkeeper Adrian was putting in a strong performance.
Adrian's display was all the more impressive because West Ham assistant manager Neil McDonald revealed after the match that the Spaniard had dislocated a finger in the warm-up, but insisted on playing.
West Ham had reshuffled their team with so many injuries, resulting in Cheikhou Kouyate playing in defence.
"He's had it strapped up," McDonald said of the keeper's injury. "He's stood up and been counted, which is great."
Even Adrian's heroics were not enough, though.
Mesut Ozil, Ramsey and Giroud interchanged with precision before the French striker rifled the ball in off the far post to make it 1-0.
Giroud had received criticism for his misses against Monaco, but has responded with two goals in his last two league games and Wenger praised his resilience.
"Always, it's one of his great strengths. This is a boy who played at 22, 23 in Division 2 in France. You need mental strength for that. There's no red carpet there," he said.
West Ham put Arsenal under pressure in the second half, which was oddly disrupted by a calf injury to referee Chris Foy, who swapped roles with fourth official Anthony Taylor.
Arsenal eventually picked off the visitors.
Giroud combined with Ramsey for the Welsh midfielder to fire past Adrian in the 81st minute, before Flamini made it 3-0 with an easy finish three minutes later.
The final score was somewhat unfair to West Ham. McDonald said manager Sam Allardyce skipped the post-match press conference because he wanted to pick up the players, who "were feeling really sorry for themselves".
There was none of that with Arsenal, whose week had started with an FA Cup quarter-final win at Manchester United, and Wenger said his players believe that they can do something special in Europe on Tuesday.
"We now go to Monaco, come out of a big week, played at Manchester United, played today a derby - we have a little belief," he said. "If you have no belief, you have no chance. We have to have belief and give everything."
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'Today we are a different team' says Arsene Wenger as Arsenal continue Premier League charge
Arsene Wenger says his Arsenal side has belief they can overturn their 3-1 deficit to Monaco in the return leg of their last-16 Uefa Champions League tie in France, but said they are still not in the Premier League title race despite cutting Chelsea's lead to six points.
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