Mourinho has the finishing line in sight

Martyn Ziegler

Chelsea have stretched the gap to 11 points over Manchester United and 13 over Arsenal and Mourinho believes the main competition is now focused on the runners-up spot.

Mourinho said: "Manchester United are second now, a few days ago it was Arsenal but it's not our problem because at the moment they have a big fight for second place. They have to fight each other to see who can be more comfortable there.

"We need to win nine matches and draw one to be sure of winning the league and I don't care about Manchester United, I don't care about Arsenal, I just care about us.

"We are just concentrating on what we have to do.

"I watched the match on Tuesday, it was a great game between two sides who both wanted to win and although I would have preferred a draw it was better for us that Manchester United won because Arsenal were closer to us."

Chelsea were made to fight every inch of the way in the 1-0 win at Blackburn on Wednesday night but Mourinho claims his players have shown that they will not be intimidated by dirty tricks.

He added: "I am very, very confident that we can cope with whatever we face. If we go to another stadium and the same thing happens we can cope.

"If we go to Bolton or Everton and they have also watered the pitch to make it very heavy we have shown we can cope with that too.

"We are showing we are ready for everything we can play football and we can fight."

Chelsea were indebted to keeper Petr Cech for saving a Paul Dickov penalty and in doing so surpassing the record of his "greatest idol" Peter Schmeichel.

Cech has now gone 781 minutes without conceding a goal and has moved past 694 minutes set by Schmeichel for Manchester United in 1997.

Cech preserved his record by pulling off a brilliant save to deny Dickov from the spot and earned a kick in the stomach from the Scotland striker as both chased the loose ball.

The Czech international said: "Schmeichel was one of my greatest idols and for that reason this record means even more to me. I just hope that I will go on to have as successful a career as Schmeichel did.

"It is great to beat the record, and I thought I was going to lose it when the referee blew for the penalty kick.

"It was only two minutes, I was so close. Fortunately I dived the right way but I only decided to go that way at the very last moment.

"I knocked his shot away and started after the ball to get hold of it and though I got there much quicker than Dickov, but he kicked me in my belly.

"Luckily I was also to play on after several minutes treatment and at half-time the doctor checked my stomach in the dressing room and cooled it with ice."

Cech's save helped Chelsea extend their lead at the top of the Premiership to 11 points and made it eight league wins in-a-row without conceding a goal.

The keeper added: "Everyone was congratulating me on breaking the record in the dressing room afterwards, but mainly they were all glad that thank to the saved penalty we won and kept our lead at the top.

"It was probably the best penalty save of my career as it ensured three important points for us and the record for me."