Jose Mourinho: Tottenham have it easy

Chelsea may not have returned to their usual form, but this was at least a return to Jose Mourinho’s usual pre-game machinations. 

As the happier-looking Portuguese still tries to turn his side’s season around, he also tried to turn all the pressure onto Tottenham ahead of what is a hugely significant meeting at White Hart Lane tomorrow.

Spurs are unbeaten in the league since the opening day, and Mourinho initially heaped praise on a manager he hugely respects in his “friend” Mauricio Pochettino — only to then offer the sting.

The Chelsea manager said it’s a lot easier to do what Tottenham are doing when there’s “no pressure” to finish top four and challenge. That, of course, is also the deeper point to this match. If Spurs do beat the champions tomorrow, it will be yet more proof they are now the real deal.

It would be another huge scalp. It would also be another near-fatal blow to Chelsea’s own chances of finishing in the top four this season, and plunge the club back into crisis, so it is little wonder Mourinho is conspicuously amping up the mental tension for Tottenham’s players in his own way.

“Nobody speaks about them as title contenders like they speak about [Manchester] City, United, this and that. They lose a couple of matches and nothing happens. They are in the Europa League, in the group phase, and no one cares about that at that stage. They go smoothly step by step, build a team, new players, give conditions for the young players to develop.

“They have good conditions and no pressure to do magnificent work. They need a great manager, which they have. And good players, which they have. And the conditions too. I cannot say how much easier those conditions are.

“When I was in a team whose objectives were not to be relegated (Portugal’s União de Leiria in 2001), in December, we were third and it was fantastic. You could go into every match after that knowing you can lose.

“You can bring in young players without problems, even if they’re not ready. You play the top teams and if you win, you’re a hero. If not, it’s something very natural. I enjoyed it.” Part of the reason that Mourinho is saying this, of course, is because he has barely enjoyed any game against a side even close to Spurs’ quality this season.

Chelsea have only claimed eight wins so far and the list of those they have beaten is underwhelming. It reads: West Brom, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Arsenal, Walsall, Aston Villa, Dynamo Kyiv, Norwich City, Maccabi Tel-Aviv.

The only team that stands out is Arsenal, who have their own complex with Chelsea, and the feeling persists Chelsea otherwise need poor opposition to look any way good. Confidence hasn’t been allowed to build to the point that they can express themselves again, and that is perhaps why Mourinho has played on Spurs’ own confidence in order to tilt the chances of the champions claiming three successive wins for just the second time this season.

There were signs of that even against a side as poor as Maccabi, with Chelsea’s defence often exposed at 1-0, and the forward line still not linking, even in a 4-0 win.

One clear example of the latter came just before half-time, when Diego Costa failed to offer a run in support of Cesc Fabregas’s pass to Eden Hazard, earning a very public rebuke from Mourinho. The manager played that down yesterday… only to then continue his criticism of Costa.

“He’s not reading the game properly in these actions. That was my opinion. As a striker, he must read. You have to play not when you have the ball, but when others have the ball. You have to anticipate and read the game faster.

“Everything is an accumulation [of confidence]. You’re not on fire again just because you’ve scored a goal against Norwich. It’s a process.” The same could be said of the team. They are not on fire just because they’ve beaten Norwich and Maccabi. They must beat Spurs, or Mourinho will really know pressure again.