Improvement, not milestones, is what Jose is striving for

CHELSEA manager Jose Mourinho reaches two more milestones at the club in today’s Premier League game at home to London rivals Crystal Palace.

It will be his 200th league match, of which he has lost only 20, and 100th home league game, with only one defeat – by lowly Sunderland in April.

“I’m proud of the record but I don’t think it has any influence in the future,” Mourinho said yesterday.

“It’s not normal, 99 matches in the most competitive league and a defeat could have happened in so many matches.”

In his first spell at the club, between 2004- 07, the Portuguese won two league titles, adding a third on his return to west London last season.

The Blues have made a stuttering start to the new campaign with a win, a draw and a 3-0 defeat by league leaders Manchester City.

Mourinho, however, believes, that falling five points behind at this stage is not a problem.

“It’s not normal that in three matches you have three penalties against and play with 10 men twice,” he said.

“Four points is not what we want, but is not a drama. We know we’re going to improve.

“Manchester City are a very good team and have started well, but last season Chelsea started well and arrived at January 1 with the same points as others.”

On Palace’s last visit to Stamford Bridge, in May, Chelsea clinched the league title with a 1-0 win.

Mourinho says Alan Pardew’s Eagles were even stronger this season and will be “top 10 for sure”.

But the Blues boss must do without captain John Terry, who was sent off in the 3-2 win at West Brom on Sunday.

As usual, Mourinho refuses to comment about transfer targets like centreback John Stones of Everton and Chinese defender Zhang Linpeng of Guangzhou Evergrande.

“I have a good squad. If I get another player, good, but if I don’t, I go with what we have,” he said.

● Francis Coquelin is “doing a great job” as Arse-

ACHIEVEMENT: Jose Mourinho nal’s first- choice defensive midfielder and the numbers back him too, according to manager Arsene Wenger.

Former Manchester United defender and pundit Gary Neville has criticised the Gunners midfield, especially Coquelin, but Frenchman Wenger seems to have complete faith in his 24-yearold compatriot.

“Coquelin has (some of) the best defensive statistics and numbers in Europe,” the 65-year-old said. “You watch football like I watch football and you will see that defensively, Coquelin is doing a great job.

“Since January, we have conceded less goals than anybody else. You know in football you have to accept that anybody can be right.

“The only thing I want is that when people have opinions, it is documented and worked-out before.”

Arsenal have scored in only one of their first three league matches this season, but Wenger is confident his side will return to their fluid best at Newcastle today.

“We have to play quicker, be more incisive, combine quicker in the final third and we work hard on that,” the Gunners’ longest- serving manager said.

“We create chances, but at the moment, we analyse well after the game the number of chances and the number of expected goals we should score with the chances we create.

“At the moment we have a little deficit between the chances we create and the number of chances we score,” he added. – Reuters