José Mourinho’s faith in his players remains intact with the Chelsea manager convinced the team will regain their poise following elimination from Europe in midweek and go on to claim the Premier League for the first time in five years.
Following the midweek loss to Paris Saint-Germain at Stamford Bridge minds are now focused on maintaining their five-point advantage at the top in the domestic title race by defeating Southampton on Sunday. Mourinho and his players conducted a half-hour meeting at Cobham on Thursday where recent defensive frailties, particularly at set pieces, and the fluency of their attacking play were discussed.
Yet, with all those who featured against PSG having declared themselves fully fit and available, Mourinho will not make sweeping changes for the game, sure as he is that a team who have sat at the top all season boast the qualities to finish the job. “I have the same belief in these players as I’ve always had,” he said. “It is absolutely unshakeable. It’s one thing to be disappointed and try and find the reasons why we – not ‘them’ – didn’t succeed in these games. It’s another thing to lose belief in the players.
“But these are the same players who have been top of the league since day one. And the same players who ended with zero defeats in their eight Champions League matches. These are the same people who won the League Cup. The same people who are going to win the Premier League. If we do that, a season with the Premier League title and the Capital One Cup is a brilliant season.”
Players and coaching staff spoke at the debriefing – “Good opinions, different opinions, the players responding the way I expected,” said Mourinho – with the manager’s intention to draw a line under the European campaign. “You go out of the Champions League once a season,” he said. “There are clubs that can be out of European competitions twice in a season, but not us. This was not just a match on Wednesday. It was a chapter. So we closed the chapter, but we still have the book to write. We have 11 more matches to finish the book. Let’s see if the last page of the book is with the Premier League trophy in our hands.”
There was an acknowledgement that Chelsea are “not playing at the same level now” as earlier this term, with Mourinho putting that down to an accumulation of niggling injuries and untimely suspensions to key personnel. Cesc Fàbregas, who is without an assist since mid-January having initially revelled in his return to English football, has been labouring with fitness problems, with the team’s rhythm disrupted by the bans incurred by Diego Costa, who is without a goal in two months, and Nemanja Matic.
“I wouldn’t expect the team who played Burnley in the first game in August to play the last game without being interrupted in between,” Mourinho said. “This is a season. Injuries and suspensions are normal. Form going up and down is normal. It’s normal that we lost a little bit of our fluidity, our confidence, so our numbers in terms of goals scored, chances created [go down]. We have the correct number of players, and I trust the guys. I’m happy.
“We have 11 matches to play, six at home and five away, difficult matches with London derbies and against teams who desperately need points to play in next year’s Champions League or to stay in the Premier League. The two extremes. But we are also at one extreme as a team who wants to win the Premier League title. I think our answer is going to be good. I really believe we are going to win it.”