Jose Mourinho claims winning the title is now impossible for his Chelsea side, following their surprise defeat at Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon.
The Blues suffered a defeat at Aston Villa earlier this month, and despite bouncing back from that to hammer Arsenal 6-0 last weekend, they have now fallen to successive away losses after John Terry’s own-goal gave the Eagles maximum points. And although they remain on top of the table, Manchester City are just two points behind with two games in hand, whilst Liverpool are a single point behind having played a game less.
All this has led to Mourinho now ruling his side out of the title race, just weeks after their win against rivals City had many pundits making them favourites for the crown. But the Portuguese coach, who is now preparing his team for the UEFA Champions League clash against Paris St Germain, insists he and his players will not give up.
“I think it is now impossible to win the title. We depend too much on other results,” he told Sky Sports. “Of course, with my mentality, I want to try and win every game. The main objective is to finish in the top four of the table. The second objective is to finish in the top three, which is also important. Since the beginning of the season I am just trying to win without thinking too much about positions, and about points.”
Mourinho has constantly said all season that his team are not ready to win the league, and it now appears as though he could be proved right. The Stamford Bridge side remain somewhat short of options up front, with Samuel Eto’o, Fernando Torres and Demba Ba having scored just 15 Premier League goals between them this term.
This is just three more than Romelu Lukaku has scored during his loan spell at Everton, but it remains uncertain if the Belgium international has a future at Chelsea. Toffees manager Roberto Martinez would certainly like to keep the 20-year-old at Goodison Park next season, and this is something the Spaniard will consider in the summer.
“The parent club has a big say and the player will have a big say,” he said. “All I’m concentrating on is that the loan has been a big success. That is down to the eight games (remaining) to fulfil the promise. From a football point of view he found it was perfect to be with us. It has been really successful, firstly for Rom in that he has developed the way we wanted and Chelsea are happy with the way we treated their player.”
