Jose still playing percentage game

Chelsea 4 Tottenham 0

The bookies have Chelsea as clear favourites to win the Premier League now, after a demolition of Tottenham, a destruction as deceptive as it was effective.

Yet Mourinho still maintains he would rather be in Manuel Pellegrini’s shoes, as Manchester City trail by nine points but with three games in hand and a better goal difference. Mourinho’s argument is that if both sides win all their remaining games, the Premier League title will stay in Manchester, albeit in the blue side of the city. The bookmakers disagree. Does the Special One have special knowledge? Is he trying his mind games again by putting the pressure on Pellegrini, or simply being realistic?

There is method in his apparent madness. True, this was Chelsea’s biggest winning margin over their London rivals in a league game for 12 years, and all but finished off Tottenham’s hopes of reaching the top four.

But until a soft penalty and harsh red card propelled Spurs into self-destruct mode, there was little between the teams, and Tottenham more than matched their hosts for an hour, as Everton and Fulham had done in previous weeks.

Just as Spurs were not as woeful on the whole as the scoreline or their manager, Tim Sherwood, suggested, once again Chelsea did not have the look of champions. They do not have the attacking swagger of the side with which Mourinho won back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006, nor the stylish look of the side which repeated that success under Carlo Ancelotti four years ago.

What they do have, however, is the ability to grind out results when they need to, the precious quality of opportunism, taking advantage of moments of weakness in their opponents – and Spurs presented plenty of them as the game wore on.

Hugo Lloris barely had a save to make in the Spurs goal until Jan Vertonghen’s horrendous mistake presented Samuel Eto’o with a golden opportunity in the 56th minute. Four minutes later the mistake came from referee Michael Oliver, who gave a penalty as Eto’o collapsed under Younes Kaboul’s challenge and then compounded his error with a red card for the Spurs defender. Eden Hazard put away the penalty and 10-man Spurs wilted to such an extent that Demba Ba scored twice in the final minutes, leading to Sherwood’s rant about lack of character and guts in his side.

No wonder. After losing 5-0 at home to Liverpool, and conceding 11 goals in two games to Manchester City, Tottenham clearly capitulate to bigger and better teams.

The Spurs manager was adamant, however, that City should win the title because they have more firepower, and in truth the four goals Chelsea scored, all handed on a plate by mistakes by their opponents and the referee, were the only shots on target they managed, even against a makeshift defence further depleted by the loss of Kaboul and then skipper Michael Dawson, who limped off.

This side’s chief characteristic, according to Mourinho, is the ability to remain calm and then strike when the chance arises. “We had one big opportunity in the second minute of the game, but Hazard missed from a difficult angle,” he said.

“I think we cope well with the difficult moments of the game. We are a team that doesn’t panic when the opponent has the ball, doesn’t panic when we miss two or three passes and the crowd boo a little bit. We are very, very stable in our game. And I think that’s a very good quality, especially for a team with a lot of young people like we have.”

But it was one of the older men, Eto’o, who made the difference with his opening goal. He may be 33 today — and not older, as Mourinho joked recently — but the Cameroon striker was like a teenager as he raced on to Vertonghen’s backpass to score. “In the second half Eto’o was brilliant,” said Mourinho, who enjoyed his striker’s goal celebration mocking his age.

“You can speak about Vertonghen’s mistake, but if Eto’o was not there to read the situation a defender would take the ball or the goalkeeper. When that chance arrived, Eto’o killed the game.

“He’s not 20 years old, super-fast player like he was 10 years ago. He needs to be close to the opponents’ goal. He needs to put his feet in the box and there he’s obviously very intelligent in the way he moves. He scores ‘fox’ goals.”

For Tottenham, the only thing left to play for is the Europa League, with the visit of Benfica this Thursday. “There’s a lack of character, too many of them are too nice to each other and you need to show a bit more guts,” said Sherwood. “We let the fans down again on a big occasion and we owe them a performance.”

CHELSEA: Cech 7; Ivanovic 6, Cahill 7, Terry 6, Azpilicueta 7; Schurrle 6, Ramires 6, Lampard 6, Matic 6, Hazard 7; Eto’o 7.

Subs: Oscar for Lampard (46), Willian for Schurrle (66), Ba for Eto’o (75).

TOTTENHAM: Lloris 7, Naughton 6, Dawson 6, Kaboul 6, Vertonghen 6; Walker 6, Sandro 6, Bentaleb 7, Lennon 6, Sigurdsson 6; Adebayor 7.

Subs: Paulinho for Sigurdsson (61), Fryers for Dawson (71).

Referee: M Oliver.