Jose says Spurs are ponies in a big-horse title race!

JOSE Mourinho appeared to start the title race mind games by dismissing Tottenham’s credentials despite watching his team move back to the top of the Premier League. Mourinho branded his Spurs side as ‘ponies’ in the championship race even though their draw against Chelsea moved them above champions Liverpool at the summit. When Mourinho managed Chelsea in 2014, he famously described his side as a ‘little horse’ in the title race. But despite starting their second successive week at the top of the table, the Portuguese said: ‘We are not even in the race. We are not a horse. I don’t know what the word is. We are the small, young horses. We are just a pony. ‘Joe Rodon was playing for Swansea (last season). Thiago Silva was for many, many years and still is one of the best centre backs in the world. Maybe one month of Thiago’s salary will pay Joe for a year. ‘They (Chelsea) are one of the biggest contenders. ‘I believe that for them it is not a problem at all to be two points behind us and Liverpool, I think. They know how powerful they are and the squad that they have. And they know that this is a long season. They also know that Tottenham is not a candidate.’ Chelsea boss Frank Lampard, however, didn’t concur with his former manager’s assertions, insisting Spurs must be considered as genuine title contenders. ‘Jose can say it how he sees it but, if we are contenders, then they have to be,’ said Lampard. ‘Any team with Harry Kane and Son Heung-min would expect to be in the race. They had Gareth Bale on the bench and Dele Alli wasn’t even here, so they have plenty of quality in their squad.’ In addition to their disagreement over Tottenham’s title challenge, the managers’ opinions also differed over which team set up for a draw. Mourinho said: ‘Both teams wanted to win, but both did not want to lose and you saw that with the changes they made going player by player. They didn’t take risks and didn’t commit as many players to attack as they normally do.’ Lampard, however, added: ‘It was what we expected from them because we know the style of their manager and how they tend to play. There was only one team trying to win it at the end.’