Mourinho hails 'untouchable' Cole

Jose Mourinho branded Joe Cole “untouchable” after the England midfielder blasted Chelsea 11 points clear in their Barclays Premiership title march.

The champions were struggling to overcome the pre-match loss of Frank Lampard and a stubborn Manchester City outfit at Eastlands until Cole seized on an Eidur Gudjohnsen shot which had taken two fortunate deflections in between being saved by David James.

Cole quickly dispatched his seventh goal of the campaign – and his 14th since Boxing Day last year – to give Chelsea a 1-0 triumph to move the Blues further towards retaining their title.

“At this moment, Joe Cole is untouchable,” said Mourinho.

“He was fantastic tonight in every aspect of the game.

“Physically he was amazing. He is strong, has control under pressure. He is great one-on-one and has an appetite for goals.

“He is unbelievable – a fantastic player.”

Cole’s contribution proved decisive after Lampard had pulled out 10 minutes before the game after failing to recover from an illness which had been bothering him all day.

With Birmingham holding Manchester United at St Andrews, Chelsea were able to extend their lead, although Liverpool could close the gap to nine if they win two matches in hand.

Even so, Chelsea would still need to lose three times in the second half of the campaign to give Rafael Benitez’s men a sniff of a chance, unlikely given they have only dropped points in two of their 19 matches so far.

“I always say the best team wins the championship because it is over 38 matches,” said Mourinho.

“We do not have to be worried. For us it is about controlling the distance, getting three points or picking up one.

“If we had drawn tonight and Manchester United had won I do not think it would make that much difference. The situation would have been the same.

“For us it is about winning. For the others it is about waiting for our mistakes.”

Mourinho admitted he would have been happy to leave Eastlands with a point, a better result than they got in the corresponding fixture last season when City inflicted Chelsea’s only league defeat of the campaign.

But for all their industry, typified by Joey Barton’s lung-busting efforts, the hosts lacked a cutting edge.

“I was always confident the goal would come,” said Mourinho.

“These are the type of games where you would accept a point. Under those circumstances, it is important for the players not to panic and keep control of their emotions.

“They must not make mistakes and they must not concede a goal because with the quality in our side we can always score. If we don’t, we take away a point, if we do we go away with a positive result which is what we deserved tonight.”

Mourinho dismissed the absence of former City favourite Shaun Wright-Phillips as nothing more than a tactical decision based on his need for only one winger - in this case Robben – to be on the bench.

But the absence of a player who for three years was the Blues’ best player before his £21million departure for Stamford Bridge last summer, only emphasised the gulf between the respective sides.

“It didn’t bother me,” said Stuart Pearce when asked about the introduction of Robben and Hernan Crespo for Damien Duff and Didier Drogba just before the hour mark. “I brought on Lee Croft.

“You don’t anticipate anything in this game but we did hope our endeavour would have brought us something.

“It wasn’t to be but my players could not have given me any more.”