I have a sneaking feeling that Jose Mourinho is not really all that worried about Arsenal catching his Chelsea team and challenging for the Premier League title this season. But as ESPN have reported, the Portuguese manager did say yesterday that the Gunners were still in the title race.
Mourinho said, “Of course Arsenal are in it. They are seven points behind Chelsea, but have one less match to play than Chelsea.
“Both City and Arsenal are in the title race. It depends on the momentum for Arsenal – the 3-1 defeat against Monaco or the 3-0 win against West Ham?
“So the danger is always there. But I keep saying, we are there. If someone had told me in August that, at the end of March, we’d be six points in front with a match in hand, I’d have signed for that immediately.
“There are two perspectives. One perspective is a draw at home to Southampton is not a good result. For me, that perspective is very acceptable.
“The second perspective is we had a lead of five points from second, and now it’s six points with one less match to play.
“I keep thinking whether our opposition is better than them [over the run-in], but I think so. Both teams are in the race.”
His words came after Chelsea were held to a draw against Southampton at Stamford Bridge, meaning that Arsenal closed the gap to the top by another two points over the weekend. They were also held to a draw by Burnley in their last home league game and when you consider that they were knocked out of the Champions League at home with the 2-2 against PSG, you can understand why Mourinho might be worried about his own team’s momentum.
Three draws in their last six league games could have put their title challenge at serious risk but Man City have failed to take advantage, but we have won our last five games in a row and if we continue to win then it could start to get a bit tasty, especially as they have to come to the Emirates at the end of April, one game after hosting Man United.
We still need a miraculous fall by Chelsea but if they do fail to win away at Hull next weekend and we beat Newcastle, the international break will not be a nice two weeks for Jose. But I believe his words on Arsenal are meant more as a kick up the bum to his players than a real belief that Arsenal might catch them. Is there really a chance for us?