Chelsea Manager Jose Mourinho admitted what we’ve known for a long while. There will be a new champion in the Premier League this season. The current champions ran away it with it last season. Chelsea won the title by such a decisive margin, and essentially wrapped things up so early that it made the latter part of the season rather boring.
Chelsea played a boring brand of ball down the stretch to run out the clock and claim some silverware. It inspired envy and hate for Mourinho and Chelsea among supporters of other clubs.
That those feelings of hatred and jealousy have transformed into schadenfreude as the Blues have struggled. They beat Norwich City 1-0 at Stamford Bridge yesterday to move above the Canaries into 15th place, but they’re still 14 points behind league leaders Leicester City and 12 points off fourth place Arsenal.
“It’s a bit of a relief,” said Mourinho, happy that Chelsea ended a three-match losing streak.
“The pressure was there – I was feeling, the players were feeling too. We coped well with that and we got a result which obviously we needed very, very much.
“Fourth position for me is not an impossible mission. If you ask me the title I would say impossible mission.”
“Maybe Tom Cruise can do it [but] it’s complicated because you have to recover points from four candidates. But to grab one of the [teams] that go up and will also have a little bit of a collapse… the fourth position is a difficult position but a possible target.”
Jose Mourinho with a Tom Cruise and “Mission Impossible” reference there. Love it! Still, Mourinho’s side was the overwhelming favorite to win the title in the preseason, and even their manager had admitted that dream is now over.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye. He also appears regularly on numerous television and radio talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
Follow him on Twitter and Instagram