Jose Mourinho has once again reiterated his belief that Chelsea will not be able to match the Arsenal ‘Invincibles’ this season. The blues are the only undefeated team left in the division after a 2-0 win over Arsenal before the international break.
Chelsea are up against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday. This is the fixture where we suffered a 1-0 defeat last season. Palace may have lost manager Tony Pulis, but they still remain a formidable force under Neil Warnock. According to ESPN, Mourinho said ahead of the match:
“I don’t think so. Times change, teams change, competitions change, players’ mentalities change. Everything changed, so I don’t think it’s possible [going unbeaten for a full season] in England any more.
“We are a good team, we know that we are a good team. We know that we have a long way to go, a lot of space to improve.
“We have a lot of young players and we are in the most difficult competition in the world, which is the Premier League. It is the only competition where every result can happen at every stadium and especially because we have five teams fighting for the title.”
It has become the norm of the media to compare undefeated teams with the Arsenal Invincibles of 2004. However, it is often found that this undefeated run does not last beyond November, or in extreme cases, in December. Chelsea are much stronger than last season which would theoretically suggest that we should suffer less than the six defeats of last campaign.
The next few weeks represent a string of tough tests for Chelsea in the league. After this away match against one of our London rivals, Chelsea are up against a reinvigorated Manchester United at Old Trafford before taking on QPR and Liverpool.
Should Mourinho’s team make it beyond these four matches unscathed, the talk of becoming the next Invincibles will increase.
Jose tells it like it is. No sugar coating. and what he says is right. We are a good team with room to improve. But right now all our lads are fit. They are getting better each week, thyre gelling and getting to know how the new lads think and play. Yes we need our AMs to score more goals and we need another striker as IMO Remy isnt at our level. We need to be able to feel confident if/when Costa is injured/suspended. I know as we use a 1 striker formation its difficult to ask a great striker to be patient on the bench but we rotate our midfield to some extent and would be great to have 2 strikers on in some situations.
But right now I dont mind who or where we play against. Theres an excitement and confidence in the stands Ive not felt since Joses 1st spell with us. The premiership and the CL is ours to lose.