Blues have improved, Mourinho warns rivals

JOSE MOURINHO expects Chelsea to be given a much tougher test of their Barclays Premiership credentials this season but warned his title rivals “we have improved.”

The Blues secured their first championship in half-a-century last season, finishing 12 points ahead of Arsenal, and 18 in front of third-placed Manchester United after losing just one league game.

Chief executive Peter Kenyon has already confidently claimed the winners of the 2005/2006 Premiership would come “from a small bunch of one” as the west-London club look to continue their dominance of the English game.

Mourinho, however, is under no illusions of the challenges which the next nine months will hold for his expensively-assembled squad, which was this summer boosted by the addition of Spain defender Asier del Horno and England winger Shaun Wright-Phillips for a combined fee of £29million, and striker Hernan Crespo’s return to Stamford Bridge from a season-loan at AC Milan.

“The Premier League will never be easy - every game is difficult,” declared the Chelsea manager.

“If we win the Premier League again this season, we won’t do it with the distance of last season.

“It was incredible what we did last season and everyone else was more worried about talking about Chelsea blips rather than their own form.

“They thought they could lose points because we would lose points - ‘no problem, they will have a blip’, they said. But this season they won’t speak any more about that.

“This season they will think only about themselves and will be better.”

“We did have weakness last season, but have already improved by signing Shaun from Manchester City.

“When Arjen Robben and Damien Duff were injured at the start of the season, we could not play our best team. In the middle of the season when Robben was injured we had to adapt Joe Cole and in the crucial part of the season when Duff was injured we could not play with our best system. We needed an extra winger and we have it.

“Also last season we had to play a lot of matches without a pure left-back, but now we have a new one. When you look at our squad, we have improved.”

The first silverware of Mourinho’s reign at Stamford Bridge came in the form of the Carling Cup, with their victims Liverpool later exacting revenge with victory in the semi-finals of the Champions League. And Mourinho revealed only another double addition to the trophy room - which must include the championship crown or the European Cup - would, for him, provide a satisfactory outcome to the forthcoming campaign.

“There are two big competitions, the Premiership and Champions League, and after that there are competitions we would be proud to win, the Carling and FA Cups,” said the Chelsea manager.

“We have to win a big one and a smaller one. If we win two trophies again, I will be very happy.”

Mourinho has already secured seven major trophies in the last seven years, including the Champions League with Porto in 2004.

And as he prepares his squad for Sunday’s Community Shield against FA Cup winners Arsenal in Cardiff, the 42-year-old admits his hunger for more success and drive to remain at the top of the game is as a strong as ever.

He declared: “I am at the moment one of the best managers in the world and to be one of the best ever, I have to keep winning, to keep winning things. I cannot stop - that is the aim, to keep being successful.

“I have to win another European Cup to be a great manager.