Jose Mourinho maintains Chelsea can finish in the Premier League top four after Saturday’s 1-0 win over Norwich City, but thinks defending their title will be “mission impossible.”
Mourinho conceded the champions’ title defence was over despite a narrow win against Norwich courtesy of a Diego Costa goal — just their fourth win from 13 games this season — but the Chelsea coach thinks Champions League qualification is achievable.
“It’s a bit of a relief,” said Mourinho, after Costa’s first goal since the win over Aston Villa 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.”
Costa admitted earlier this season to reporting for preseason overweight and the striker, prolific last term in Chelsea’s title triumph, had scored just three times prior to the international break.
The Brazilian-born Spain international had spurned two good opportunities and been absent when Eden Hazard fashioned two more finally before pouncing following Cesc Fabregas’ quick free kick.
Mourinho said: “You don’t score goals, you get heavier. Every game that you don’t score goals, you get five kilograms more. You get heavy and the pressure is there.
“In the first half he missed two chances. The second one, in the last minute, is really a big one. So it was important for him. Important for us, the result and the goal, but I think also for him.
“He’s working well, he’s a happy guy, he tries everything. He’s positive, so if I had to choose somebody to score the winning goal, I would go exactly with him.”
Today.ng
I'm not a Chelsea fan but I felt happy for them today. Lol. By the way, Leicester are top of the EPL log. Liverpool made this possible. What a time to be alive. Hehehe. Weird day in footballing history.
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