Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea have won five and drawn one of their six Premier League games this season
04 OCTOBER 2014
Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea are top of the Premier League and unbeaten entering Sunday’s clash with Arsenal, but the Blues boss does not expect the feats of Arsene Wenger’s ‘Invincibles’ to be emulated.
The Gunners negotiated the 2003-04 Premier League season without defeat, an achievement previously only performed by Preston in the 1880s.
Just like Chelsea’s one-in-a-generation 6-0 defeat of the Gunners in March – in Wenger’s 1,000th game in charge – Mourinho believes it is not something which will happen in the modern Premier League era.
“It’s something that happened once in a lifetime,” Mourinho said.
“I don’t see, in modern football with the competitiveness of this Premier League, one team being champion without a defeat.
“That will stay in the history as the second and the last time. (That is) my opinion, but we don’t know.”
Chelsea have won five and drawn one of their six Premier League games so far this season and face a Gunners side also unbeaten.
Arsenal capitulated on their last visit to Stamford Bridge, a match remembered for the gaping defensive holes as well as referee Andre Marriner’s mistake in sending off Kieran Gibbs for a handball committed by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Mourinho anticipates a much sterner test of his side, which features former Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas pulling the strings in midfield. Fabregas was a precocious teenager when Arsenal won the 2004 title.
“They will always be a difficult opponent,” the Blues boss added.
Mourinho loves the intensity of a derby day and testing himself against the best.
His players will also need no additional motivation, just a few instructions.
“I like it difficult,” he said. “I like to play against the best. My players also like it.
“Sometimes we are worried about the focus and we are worried about the approach.
“When you play big matches you know the players are more than ready for that.
“I have a meeting with them, but not a motivational meeting. Just a meeting to try to analyse a few things, a few images.
“Just about football. Never about the emotional side of it, or the motivational side of it.”
