Chelsea maintained their 100 percent record under manager Guus Hiddink with a hard fought 1-0 win over Portsmouth on Tuesday to keep up their hopes of clinching their third Premier League title.

With Hiddink claiming that his side will not give up on the title until it is mathematically impossible, Chelsea were on the attack right from the start with Didier Drogba presented with an excellent chance to break the deadlock by Ashley Cole but the Ivory Coast striker failed to connect the cross.

Drogba had another chance to score and though this time he managed to hit the ball, David James was at hand to save the shot. The Portsmouth keeper was at the top of his game, denying Michael Ballack with a brilliant save and then parrying Alex's curling free kick.

Portsmouth's first real chance came midway through the first half when Sean Davis almost saw his long range effort beat Petr Cech but the Czech Republic international pulled off an excellent save to deny the midfielder.

Pompey had a great chance minutes into the second half when David Nugent managed to shrug off John Terry's attentions but Cech pulled off another excellent save to keep his side in the game.

Just when it looked as if Portsmouth had done enough to come away with a point, Chelsea struck 11 minutes from time when Jose Bosingwa's cross deflected off Sol Campbell and into the path of Drogba who made no mistake from close range to give all three points to his side.