No shame in losing to Barca - Mourinho

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho insists there will be no shame if they are knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona next month.

The Blues, currently chasing trophies on four fronts, turn their attentions to the FA Cup tomorrow with a fourth round home clash against Steve Bruce’s Birmingham.

Mourinho has already guided his side into the final of the Carling Cup and he values the world’s most famous domestic knockout competition just as highly. But both tournaments fall behind the Barclays Premiership and Champions League in terms of priority at Stamford Bridge.

Mourinho’s men are 10 points clear of nearest rivals Arsenal at the top of the Barclays Premiership and face Barcelona in the last 16 of the Champions League next month.

But the Chelsea manager believes that nobody will have the right to criticise his side if they should fail to reach the last eight of the competition Mourinho won with Porto last season.

Mourinho said: “Nobody can criticise Chelsea if we lose against Barcelona or Arsenal lose against Bayern Munich or Manchester United lose against Milan.

“These are giant battles. If you lose you go home. If Milan lose against Manchester or Barcelona lose against us or Munich lose to Arsenal, they just go home.

“It is a battle of giants and to win the Champions League you need luck. But to win the Premiership you don’t need luck, you just need to be better. In the Champions League you always need a little bit of luck in crucial moments.

“The big responsibility, we feel, is to win the Premiership. We are in a great situation to control our destiny. That is the main objective. To win four trophies though is very, very difficult but we are in February and it is still possible. For me, Chelsea will win something. That is almost for sure and that is what we deserve. We deserve to win something.

“We must try to keep our mental level. At this moment the motivation is high because we have won nothing. The players are very committed, it is like a crusade to win something important for the club.”

Mourinho is likely to make more changes for the visit of Birmingham tomorrow as part of his policy of trying to keep everyone in the squad as happy as possible.

Eidur Gudjohnsen is almost certain to replace Didier Drogba in attack while Petr Cech will make way for Carlo Cudicini in goal.

Chelsea face five games in 18 days and Mourinho is determined to use his expensive and talented squad to the full.

Mourinho added: “Our mentality will be the same one we had in the Carling Cup. We tried to win every game from the first one and when we reached the semi-final, we used our best team.

“We started doing the same in the FA Cup against Scunthorpe where we used some different players. Now against Birmingham we have to use a better side. Motivating the players to keep going is easy because we have won nothing.

“The difficult situation is the one we had in Porto after my successful first season, keeping the motivation high after we have won. I hope next season we can have this same situation because it means we will have won something this season.”

But while Mourinho is happy with his own team’s motivation, he admits to being a little unsure of the way that Bruce’s side will approach the tie.

Mourinho adds: “I have a question mark about Birmingham for this game. I don’t know the way they think. They can think that winning the FA Cup is a fantastic and easier way to enter European competition or they can think that they are still in a difficult position in the Premiership and not play such a strong team.

“I do not know the way Steve Bruce is thinking and preparing. But we are preparing to face Birmingham’s best team. That is the way we must think.”

Birmingham midfielders David Dunn and Muzzy Izzet along with winger Stan Lazaridis are all out through injury, as is Senegalese international Salif Diao - brought in on-loan from Liverpool to replace Robbie Savage. Damien Johnson is suspended.