With Chelsea sitting top of the league coming into this weekends round of fixtures, and people saying that this is the tightest race for the title in years, Jose Mourinho believes that his side being in Europe is holding back their chances. With Manchester City and Arsenal going out in the last round of the Champions League, and Liverpool not competing in Europe this season he believes that his side have got a major disadvantage on the other contenders.
The Chelsea manager has constantly highlighted that any lack of European football for Liverpool this season is the main reason for their improvement this season. And in his news conference ahead of this weekends games he again referred to the lack of European football at Anfield this season despite his sides one point league at the summit of the table.
Mourinho said, “We play Champions League, they don’t. We have to play matches with two and three days in between, we have to change focus from the Premier League to the Champions League and back. Liverpool? They keep going in their perfect season. We have no time to prepare for matches like they have. I think it’s a big advantage – an advantage that City have just now, and an advantage that Liverpool have had since the beginning of the season.”
City sit in third and are three points behind the leaders with two games in hand on Mourinho’s side. The Portuguese manager said that his side shall be taking one game at a time from here on in and hope that it is enough. He said, “We aren’t in Man City’s shoes but we are going to try to play well and win tomorrow. That’s all we can do. We can win the league but it depends on the others. We have to try to win every game but even then you don’t know.”
When asked about Arsenal, who Mourinho’s side wiped aside last week beating them 6-0 at Stamford Bridge he said, “Mathematically it’s open for them. It’s more difficult because they’re a few points behind the other three teams, but it’s obviously possible.”
With another week of football and big fixtures coming up, its a wait and see situation for all the top sides. But with Chelsea still in Europe, and the possibility of facing Liverpool inbetween semi final fixtures in the Champions League, their is a chance that we could be hearing more about the non involvement of the other sides in Europe effecting Chelsea’s chances.
Stefan Hobson
