Mourinho eyes the title

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho tonight basked in the glory of another four-goal flourish and vowed that his team would be champions barring a major hiccup or a dramatic improvement from their distant title rivals.

The Blues' boss watched his side go six points clear above Everton at the summit with their ruthless demolition of struggling Norwich.

At times Chelsea were in cruise control, yet they were always able to up the tempo and Mourinho was fully appreciative of his players’ efforts.

“At this moment, I don’t think anybody is better than us,” he said.

“A better team than us can stop us but if we keep our mental, tactical and physical condition, nobody can stop us.

“We have to lose matches in the second half of the season but at this moment no-one is better than us.

“In the future – I don’t know. Maybe Arsenal or Manchester United can jump to a different level or maybe we can slide into a lower level.

“But at this moment we feel strong and we are ready for the fight.

“United and Arsenal are chasing us and they try to close the gap.

“But our objective is to keep this gap. We could have injuries and players could lose form but at this moment my confidence of winning the league is big.

“We do not need to be worried about what our opponents are doing. We just concentrate on ourselves, for them it is more difficult because they have to win matches and wait for Chelsea to lose points. It is a more difficult job for them.”

Mourinho was unhappy with Chelsea’s first-half performance, even though they went in at the break with a three-goal advantage, secured by goals from Damien Duff, Frank Lampard and Arjan Robben.

He added: “I told the players at half-time that the next goal was crucial. At 4-0 we kill the opponent but at 3-1 they can could create a difficult game for us.

“In the second half we defended in the their half and we were much better than in the first half.

“Norwich began the game better than us and even though Petr Cech never had a single save to make, I thought they were the better team.

“We should have scored much more in the second period but for the spirit they brought to the game, Norwich didn’t deserve such a hard result.”

Norwich manager Nigel Worthington was dealt a major blow after only eight minutes when striker Mathias Svensson was forced off out of the action.

The City boss confirmed that Svensson had sustained medial ligament damage and would be out until January at the earliest.

But he was also disappointed with two defensive errors from Thomas Helveg and Gary Doherty which gifted the leaders the opening two goals to Duff and Lampard.

Worthington said: “No shame in getting beat at Chelsea. We are disappointed but I was delighted with the character and the grit because when you are three down at half-time, it is easy for the heads to drop.

“They you can finish up getting a real hammering. We didn’t allow that to happen.

“But we gave the ball away and in the Championship you can get away with it but not at this level.

“I was very pleased until the first goal as that put us on the back foot. That little mistake in the Premier League, that half-chance, finishes up in the back of the net.

“But we have got to stick together and keep working. There will be no major changes to our dressing room in January. We came here to win the game but Chelsea are a quality side who will be there or thereabouts for the title.

“Unfortunately for us, Mathias has done his medial ligaments and so he will be out for a few weeks.”

The game was over by half-time as Chelsea stormed into a three-goal lead - helped by two dreadful defensive blunders.

The first goal arrived after just 10 minutes when Duff accepted Helveg’s misplaced pass and ran on to fire beyond Robert Green.

They were two in front in the 33rd minute when Lampard took advantage of Gary Doherty’s poor passing.

The ball went straight to Robben and the Dutchman’s clever ball to Lampard allowed the England man to send a fierce effort into the top corner.

Robben then started and finished a brilliant move two minutes before the break as rampant Chelsea put the game beyond the struggling Canaries.

Drogba completed the scoring for the leaders in the 82nd minute when he rose higher than Fleming from Duff’s corner to send a powerful header into the bottom corner.