adminMANCHESTER. — Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho described his side as “the little horse” in the Barclays English Premier League soccer title race despite their impressive success over Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.Chelsea travelled to Manchester on Monday knowing that defeat would leave them six points behind City, but they won 1-0 through Branislav Ivanovic’s first-half strike to draw level on points with their rivals.
The two clubs now trail leaders Arsenal by two points with 14 matches of the season remaining, but Mourinho is insistent that his team remain a work in progress.
Mourinho watched Chelsea stop the Manchester City steamroller in its tracks with a 1-0 win at the Etihad on Monday night, but still played down his team’s chances of winning the English Premier League title.
Ivanovic’s 32nd-minute strike inflicted City’s first home defeat in the league this season after 11 straight wins, and put Chelsea level on points with their rivals behind leaders Arsenal.
But the Chelsea boss insisted that he is building a team to win the title next season even though it now looks like a three-horse race with Arsenal still sitting on top.
“There are two big horses and a little horse,” he said. “A horse that next season can race. We can win it if they lose it. Arsenal are working for many, many years for the evolution of their team.
“What we are doing this season is what Arsenal have been building to for years. We are there, but are not favourites. We are preparing the team to be one of the favourites next season and this is a very important step.”
The 51-year-old inspired his Chelsea team to the hugely impressive win against City which also meant they became the first team to do the double over City since Everton in 2010-11, but Mourinho was quick to bring up the occasions on which the Blues have dropped points this season.
Mourinho added: “We lost points at home against West Brom, against West Ham, we lost at Stoke, we lost at Newcastle.
“We are a team in evolution but this is the kind of performance that helps the team to grow up a lot, tactically, mentally, I think it was fantastic.
“It’s not our objective to win the league. Our objective is to build the team and complete the puzzle and formation of the players. Some managers because of their nature and DNA say they need two or three years.”
As the teams were announced, many believed Mourinho had set his team out to “park the bus” at the Etihad, but his team had the better of the chances during the Premier League clash, hitting the post three times.
Speaking of his players, Mourinho said: “I think they did amazing.
“When the team lost the ball they all sacrificed for the team. Our record was not good against City in the last few years, this season we managed to win these two matches especially this one.
“Today we won because we were the best team – I am not saying we are better, I am just saying we were today.”
Bizarrely, Mourinho claimed that team masseur Billy McCulloch gave the pre-match team talk. — Mailonline.
Online Reporter