Title races are supposed to leave even elite managers frazzled. The pressure tends to tell over the run-in, Sir Alex Ferguson’s infamous “squeaky bum time” rendering the most experienced figures diminished in their dugouts as they sense the chasing pack closing in at pace and their lead being whittled away. So, with that in mind, José Mourinho’s mood on the eve of the visit of resurgent Manchester United to south-west London provided a fair barometer of the anxiety gripping at Chelsea.
There was sympathy with the complaints voiced by Steve Clarke and Arsène Wenger over the clash between Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final and the most enticing Premier League game of the weekend, and bemusement at the maelstrom embroiling the champions, Manchester City. He even joked about match delegates spending too much time eating their “sushi and lobster” and supping “fine Champagne, Cristal” in the lounges at Stamford Bridge. “They don’t see the games but just stay eating and drinking,” he offered through a broad grin when attempting to explain how his side had been ranked worst in the division when it came to respect for the officials. “We should feed them bread and water.”
All was calm, utterly at ease, almost jolly. Contrast that with the atmosphere a year ago when Mourinho, his mood darkened by a succession of Football Association disciplinary charges and a cramped fixture schedule with a Champions League semi-final still to come, had dispatched his assistant Steve Holland to conduct the media briefing before the visit of bottom-placed Sunderland. Chelsea would have been top with three to play had they won that game. Instead they surrendered the manager’s 77-game unbeaten home record in the division and were effectively jettisoned from the title race, with Mourinho and his staff left livid by the officials. There would be further sanctions for their snarled reaction later in the month.
A year on and all is very much more relaxed. The leaders have lost their top scorer, Diego Costa, to another hamstring injury and his back-up Loïc Rémy to a calf strain – with Dominic Solanke, 17, on the bench instead – but Chelsea are seven points clear of Arsenal and eight of United with a game in hand on each. The message being transmitted from Cobham was that, for all they care, the pressure can fester elsewhere.
The closest rivals in the pursuit await in the leaders’ next two matches, Saturday’s visit of a United side who have won their past six league games being followed by a trip to an Arsenal team who are on a run of eight straight victories, but the onus is on those playing catch-up to make this race properly interesting.
“I know the ideal scenario for people in this country would be for the Premier League to be more like the Championship, with four teams separated by a couple of points and nobody knowing who is going to be promoted or even in the play-offs,” said Mourinho. “But, since day one, we have been top. We are boring.” They have achieved, lost and regained a hefty lead en route but have suffered only two defeats in 31 league games. Life may have become more of a grind in recent months, with key performers off colour or hampered by niggling injuries, but they have still been relentless.
Other sides would have been held by a stubborn Queens Park Rangers team last Sunday but Chelsea pilfered a winner late on with their only shot on target. If only privately, the sight of Cesc Fàbregas scoring and John Terry leading the post-match celebrations on the pitch at Loftus Road must have knocked the stuffing out of those teams who count themselves as challengers.
United are principal among them. Their dismantling of City in the derby confirmed that Louis van Gaal, once Mourinho’s mentor, is overseeing a team who will be capable of restoring the club to the pinnacle. Go unblemished from now until the end of the season, winning at Stamford Bridge and overcoming Arsenal at Old Trafford on 17 May, and could they still have a chance? “It’s still possible,” said the Dutchman. “It’s not logical but it is possible. It’s more when and if – and I don’t believe in when and if. I believe in facts. The fact is that we are behind Chelsea. All right, we have to play against them and so do Arsenal, so we can lay pressure on Chelsea’s shoulders. You never know. You’ve seen it in previous Premier League seasons …”
He will need his team to buck a trend and click from the outset at the Bridge if the first wound is to be inflicted. Van Gaal conceded his side “haven’t played well for 90 minutes” under his stewardship, citing even the opening 15 minutes against City as slack. They will travel without Michael Carrick, Daley Blind, Phil Jones, Jonny Evans and Marcos Rojo, surely weakening their challenge. “I disagree because their squad is amazing, in numbers, players, experience, solutions,” offered Mourinho. “Every week in my office we put up on the big screen the squad and the options our opponents will have. When I looked this week, for the first time I realised what they have. It’s amazing.”
One of their options is Juan Mata, a player sold by Chelsea as part of their new policy of balancing lavish purchases with heftier sales. So does Uefa’s financial fair play now play into United’s hands? “Yes, it’s easier for them,” Mourinho said. “It was easier before at Chelsea. We sold a lot of players, not just Juan, but I think it’s more fun like this. More difficult of course but more fun.” Even working within financial constrictions is apparently enjoyable these days.
he Portuguese insisted this season’s race, for all its lack of variety at the top, had been tougher than ever, with the challenge offered up from teams in mid-table, or even those near the foot, rendering everything a grind. Which makes him all the more baffled, even after six defeats in eight games, by the recent criticism of City’s manager, Manuel Pellegrini. “What I’m surprised about is that people can bring this team to hell, a side that won two titles in three years, a team who are still champions and won two trophies last season. It looks like they don’t deserve respect, that they are bad players, that the manager is a bad manager, that they are a disaster – but they are the champions.
“I don’t understand. On the one hand people want competitiveness in this country and you don’t like a team to win two titles in a row or be dominant. You want lots of teams fighting for the title. OK, they won’t win the Premier League this time but they did last year. Some managers cannot win and ‘life goes on’ but the guys at Manchester City? It looks like they’re criminals.”
While tacit praise for Pellegrini may simply have been an indication Mourinho does not consider City under the Chilean’s stewardship a threat, there was a thinly veiled poke at Wenger in that argument. That suggests the buildup to the trip to Arsenal next weekend could be spikier but, for now, the angst is all elsewhere. Chelsea are 11 points from their first title in five years. Those at their back can only live in hope.