Jose Mourinho has marked his long-awaited return to the Premier League this weekend with the contentious claim that the past two champions, Manchester United and Manchester City, were significantly inferior to his old Chelsea team.
Chelsea set an all-time record haul of 95 points under Mourinho in 2004-05 and, ahead of his first match in English football on Sunday for almost six years, the self-styled 'Special One' argued that the leading teams had regressed in the past two seasons. "I think, a few years ago, the better teams were better," he said.
"You think Man United won the Premier League last year because they were an unbelievable team? I don't think so. The other contenders didn't have a very good season. "The same the year before when Man City won the title in the last -second. Were they an extraordinary team? I don't think they were. Others made so many mistakes that City finally won the competition.
"I think sometimes you win because you are tremendous. Other times you win because you are the best. But you can be the best without being tremendous." Mourinho then contrasted United and City's most recent teams with some of the greats of England football over the past decade.
"I think the champions, in other seasons, were magnificent," he said. "In the last two seasons, I've felt no. In the past years you've had a fantastic Arsenal who were champions without a single defeat. You had Chelsea with a points record in the Premier League. You had United who won the title after our double and had an unbelievable season."
Mourinho stressed that, from top to bottom, he believes the league has strengthened since 2007 and he now regards Chelsea as one of six clubs competing to win the title. "I agree with Arsene Wenger - we don't see somebody who can destroy the competition with 95 or 100 points," he said. Mourinho was then reminded how he correctly predicted that Chelsea would win the league soon after arriving in 2004.
"My squad was a squad of end products at that time," he said. "We can this season but it's a different process. I want to give the players the stability and they don't need the added pressure. We have a good squad: some with talents who aren't end products, some kids who haven't played a Premier League match." Mourinho was adamant, however, that a repeat of last season, when Chelsea eventually had to make do with winning the Europa League, would be failure.
"I think it's a failure because we go for the Champions League," he said. There was then a very pointed observation about some of the spending this summer across Europe. "The Champions League is a competition with more contenders, ambition and potential," he said, "and some with an incredible economic potential with no 'financial fair play'. It looks like that is for some and not others." Given the estimated 1 billion pounds that Roman Abramovich has ploughed into Chelsea, there was some irony in Mourinho's comments and would appear to be another attempt to put pressure on City.
Mourinho was also amused by the suggestion of David Moyes, the United manager, that his club were the victims of some sort of conspiracy over the fixture list. "Was it a computer, or oldfashioned with hot balls and cold balls?" he asked. "If it's a computer, unless the computer has a virus, I don't know."
Mourinho also seized on a question abut the perception that his teams lack flair. "The story is always the same," he said. "Record points in the Premier League: my Chelsea. Record points in La Liga: my Real Madrid. Record of goals: my Real Madrid. I want to attack." However there was no mention of Victor Moses, who returned to Chelsea yesterday following Nigeria's match against South Africa on Wednesday.
"I don't select him for Hull," said Mourinho. David Luiz is out with a hamstring injury - and Mourinho again reiterated that the Brazilian would not be sold to Barcelona - while a late decision will be made on the fitness of Juan Mata. After a wait of 2,162 days, Mourinho is expecting his return to the home Stamford Bridge dugout tomorrow be emotional.
"I am now better than ever because experience helps us to be better," he said. He was also told that, according to Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore, his comeback would bring "stardust" to the competition. "If he's the boss and says that, maybe he's right," said Mourinho. The first sprinkling was supplied yesterday.
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