Jose Mourinho has warned that the Premiership title race is not yet over, despite Chelsea establishing a commanding nine-point advantage over second-placed Manchester United with just four games remaining.
The combined effects of Chelsea’s comfortable two-goal victory over Bolton Wanderers and Manchester United’s inability to beat bottom club Sunderland mean the Premiership trophy will almost certainly remain at Stamford Bridge.
Formalities could be concluded as early as Monday, when Chelsea entertain Everton and United travel to face Tottenham Hotspur.
But despite players and supporters alike celebrating victory over Bolton as though they secured the championship, the manager insists the season is still alive.
”I’m very confident but I am not chanting, I’m not singing, I don’t like the players to be so happy,” Mourinho said. ”I want to think about the next game now. We need four points to be champions.
”I expected to go home after this game with the same seven point lead and I would have gone home happy if that had happened. But football is football and what happened yesterday [Saturday] is all part of football.
”We have to be sure that on Monday the same thing doesn’t happen to us. We need four points or we need to get a positive result against Manchester United.
”We have four games in hand to kill the situation but now the situation is very, very loose. Every Chelsea supporter is jumping and singing we are champions again but not yet.”
It was now an opportunity ”to rest, to regroup, to go home and start preparing for the game against Everton”, Mounrinho said.
”And that game can leave us with just one point more to get. We don’t know what will happen when Manchester United go to Tottenham but we never wait for other people’s results.”
Mourinho hailed the contribution of his captain John Terry to Chelsea’s championship challenge.
Terry scored the opening goal against Bolton and his manager believes that the England defender can justifiably be regarded as the best central defender in the world.
”Last year and this season have been incredible seasons for him,” he said. ”I don’t want to say it but I think he is the best central defender in the world. He is the one who has scored most goals, he is the best in the air and he is the captain and leads
his team well.
”Touch wood, he is never injured and he plays every game, he’s quick, especially for his size. He can play in a three-man defence or in a four and he can pass the ball well, I think he is the best central defender in the world.”
Bolton manager Sam Allardyce has denied suggestions his efforts to succeed Sven Goran Eriksson as England manager have contributed to his side’s alarming run of five straight defeats.
Wanderers have fallen out of contention for a place in next season’s Champions League and must quickly rediscover their form if they are to claim a UEFA Cup spot.
But Allardyce denied he has been distracted by the protracted selection process currently being undertaken by FA chief executive Brian Barwick, and cited the recent success of Middlesbrough under fellow candidate Steve McClaren as evidence.
”Our run is nothing to do with England, no matter how many times somebody is going to ask me about it,” Allardyce said. ”It’s not affected Steve McClaren. You don’t find him moaning about it and you won’t find me moaning about it either.
”We have stopped keeping clean sheets. We got towards the top of the table because we kept 13 clean sheets in our first 24 games but we haven’t kept one since. We have to rediscover that form and start scoring as well. We still have a chance of getting into the UEFA Cup if we can go on an unbeaten run.” – Sapa-AFP