Chelsea FC Can Still Finish Top Four – Jose Mourinho
Chelsea FC have had a disastrous start to their Premier League season but Jose Mourinho insists they can still finish top four
Despite their terrible start to the Premier League season, Chelsea FC boss Jose Mourinho believes that the Blues can rally and still finish top four. The Blues have gotten an atrociuous 14 points from their first 13 matches, a form usually reserved for teams in the relegation race than those fighting for the top four.
The relegation race is precisely where the Blues find themselves at this point and their rivals are not the Manchester and London clubs, but clubs like Norwich City, Aston Villa, Bournemouth and Sunderland. In fact this past weekend’s match with Norwich was a classic relegation six-pointer rather than a test of a club’s championship credentials against a bottom of the table team.
Last season’s top four clubs had respective point totals of 87, 79, 75, and 70 points. The season before the totals were 86, 84, 82, and 79. For the sake of our sanity let us put the number that Chelsea FC need to reach at 70. With 25 matches to go and a possible 75 points available from those matches, this means that the Blues can simply not afford to drop any points for the rest of the season.
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Even the most optimistic Chelsea supporter would be hard pressed to believe that it is a possible feat. Mourinho however has the right idea in not focusing on the season as a whole, but rather on individual matches. He spoke to ChelseaFC.com about fighting for a Champions League place:
"“How can we qualify for the Champions League? I think we have to fight the next match. Now the next match is in the Champions League and we have to fight this match, believing that it is the way that can take us to Champions League football next season.”“After tonight we will look at the Premier League match against Tottenham and we have to think that with more than 70 points to play for, the Premier League is still a window of opportunity for us to qualify.”Source: ChelseaFC.com"
As Mourinho mentioned, the Blues do not have to rely on Premier League results to get back in to the Champions League next season. They can instead focus on winning the competition the way they did in 2012 when they finished fifth in the league. If recent results are any indicator then Chelsea would be hard pressed to reach the semifinals of the Champions League, much less win the whole thing. However if there is one manager who can achieve such a feat with a squad that is not firing on all cylinders it is Jose Mourinho.
His two victories in the Champions League came with two sides that were not favored on paper by any means. His FC Porto side and Inter Milan side both finished second in their groups to the Spanish powerhouses but managed to beat two giants in Manchester United and Barcelona on the way to the final. This Chelsea side would undoubtedly have to do the same to make their Champions League dreams come true but at this point it seems more likely than a top four finish.