Jose Mourinho has been downplaying Chelsea’s title ambitions throughout this campaign. He has consistently stated that Chelsea can be considered as title challengers only from next season onwards, as he is still building his team.
The blues managed to go seven points clear at the top of the table after a convincing 4-0 win over Tottenham at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. However, Mourinho says that this lead will not be sustainable if Manchester City win their three matches in hand. Even second placed Liverpool have a couple of games in hand, which would make a lot of difference according to Mourinho.
However, the consistency shown by Chelsea in recent weeks points to the fact that they will be in and around the title race by the end of the season. There are less than 10 matches remaining in the campaign. Unlike Liverpool, Chelsea will be fighting on all fronts with the club still in the Champions League. Manchester City were recently knocked out of the FA Cup by Wigan, while they are close to being knocked out in the Champions League after suffering a 2-0 defeat in the first leg against Barcelona.
Mourinho, though, sounded confident about the possibility of Chelsea finishing in the top four, which was never in doubt for most of the season.
"Clearly it is very, very difficult to not get a top-four position. They (Spurs) were the biggest threats to the top four. If we lose seven points now with nine matches to go... a lot can happen, but 13 points with nine matches is almost impossible for us to lose that, so from now our objective in the Premier League is in our pocket. Our next objective is top three, as that gives us direct qualification to the Champions League group stages,” said the Chelsea boss.