Game over?

Game over? Mourinho & Chelsea move closer to the title as City slip up

The Portuguese boss has not been in the best of moods of late and fired a well-aimed barb at his title rivals on Friday, but he should now be heading back to London with a smile

Jose Mourinho does not normally leave Villa Park in high spirits, and if his latest press conference performance on Friday is anything to go by, the Chelsea boss is not having the happiest of times at the moment.

But he will travel back to London tonight having picked up an important victory against tenacious opposition, his first at this stadium, which moves his side seven points clear of Manchester City, who could only scrape a draw at home to Hull City.

Mourinho did not have much to say on his first press appearance following the FA's decision to fine him £25,000 for claims of a 'campaign' and hand Diego Costa a three-match ban for stamping, evading most questions and answering the rest curtly, but he saw fit to fire a thinly veiled but well-aimed barb in the direction of his title rivals.

He did not mention City by name, of course, but his contestation that a team should be deducted points if they fall foul of Financial Fair Play regulations was clearly intended to hit home at the Etihad Stadium.

Mourinho and not worry about others, though, if Saturday afternoon is anything to go by. He was without Cesc Fabregas and the banned Costa, and even if his side lacked the sort of control they have exuded for the most part this season, they got the job done.

Eden Hazard was not at his best, either, but was in the right place to score the opener, while Branislav Ivanovic popped up with a goal which was crucial here and could prove even more so come the final reckoning.

These were not great conditions for victory, with Villa scrapping for every ball in an attempt to end their goal drought which was about to tick onto 11 hours when Jores Okore headed home. There is no love lost between Mourinho and Villa counterpart Paul Lambert, either, and the Scot was so incensed at something said by Rui Faria, the Chelsea attack dog, during the first half that he ripped his jacket off in a show of macho defiance.

Mourinho, criticised for trying to shake hands with Lambert and former No.2 Roy Keane before full-time at Stamford Bridge earlier this season, was off down the touchline at full-time without offering his hand to anybody.



While all that was unfolding, City were flailing about trying to score against a team which gifted Newcastle three goals last weekend.

James Milner's late free kick was more than they deserved for a prosaic performance in which the defence floundered yet again, Fernandinho and Fernando were short of creativity and Sergio Aguero barely got a touch.

One thing you can say about the current champions is that you can never write them off. A 3-3 draw at home to Sunderland in 2011-12 looked to be the kind of result which would cost them the title, as did a 2-2 stalemate against the same team late last season. Somehow, though, they recovered and eventually took advantage of huge slip-ups from Manchester United and Liverpool.

They are unlikely to have the same luck against Mourinho's Chelsea, though. City appear to be a team of extremes, capable of brilliance for several games before dropping away and losing their heads. They've already clawed back a five-point Chelsea lead over Christmas, only to immediately throw it away again.

Seven points in February is hardly the biggest margin, but it would be a monumental slip if Chelsea were to let this go now. Mourinho, always keen to hammer the right mentality into his players, insists he is taking nothing for granted.

"In another country I would say it's fantastic, in this country I say it's nothing. Every game is difficult, anything could happen. Seven points means seven points but you have 14 matches to go. You are speaking about 42 points to play for, we have a lead of seven. I think it's nothing."

Was he surprised that City dropped points? "I'm surprised with nothing in this country. Every team can take points. So no i'm not surprised but I didn't care about it, somebody told me after and that's it. I did not think about it before the game and during I did not imagine it.

"When you are top of the league you don't need the other teams to lose points. If they lose, good, but we have to focus on ourselves. If we win the next game we have a seven-point lead with 13 matches to go."

Anybody present at Cobham yesterday may suggest it is a case of "do as I say, not do as I do" for the Portuguese.

The occasional dig comes with the territory these days, but the important message heading into the final straight is that Chelsea are in the driving seat. Mourinho had said Fabregas was fit on Friday, only for the Spaniard to be left out all together on the Saturday.

The former Arsenal man has been one of the stand-out players this season and when he returns he will bring an element of control with him. Costa, too, has been a wrecking ball so far and the next time the two link up on the pitch you can expect the overall performance to be more rounded than it was here.

There is fresh blood, too. While Juan Cuadrado had little opportunity to show off his wares in a 10-minute cameo, he was clearly willing to help his new team-mates keep their shape and not let anybody in behind.

He was not faultless, and at one point he and Ivanovic were pointing at one another to cover runs, but in the Colombian Chelsea have a bright attacking threat who knows he has duties to perform at the back. He is what has become known as a Mourinho player.

There is a squad full of them at Chelsea these days, and that usually only ends with silverware.