Mourinho starts the mind games as England’s top flight prepares for the big kick-off

Wenger gets easy ride and Pellegrini inherited glory, snipes Mourinho

JOSE MOURINHO last night took a thinly veiled swipe at two of his biggest title rivals — Manchester City and Arsenal — ahead of the first day of the Barclays Premier League season.

The Chelsea manager failed to win any trophies in his first season back at the club last year, while Arsene Wenger ended nine years without silverware at Arsenal by winning the FA Cup. When asked if he felt under pressure to deliver, Mourinho replied: ‘Why? Some managers have 10 years to win something.’

City’s Manuel Pellegrini won the Premier League and League Cup double l ast year with a squad inherited from Roberto Mancini. Under the Italian they won the title, the FA Cup and the Community Shield. Mourinho added: ‘I don’t like to get clubs developed by other managers before me, I don’t like to arrive on time to collect the fruit off their trees. I like to work. I like to build. I don’t like easy jobs.’

Last season, Mourinho branded Wenger a ‘specialist in failure’ and rowed with Pellegrini about which clubs had spent the most money.

The Portuguese considers that he has been in the process of building his own squad at Stamford Bridge, not using the one handed down by Rafael Benitez.

This summer Chelsea have brought in Diego Costa for £32million and spent £16m on Filipe Luis, both from Atletico Madrid, si gned Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona for £30m and added Didier Drogba on a free transfer. In total he has brought in 11 other players on permanent deals and spent close to £200m since he arrived in 2013.

‘This is the second year of my project and I am so happy with that,’ said Mourinho. ‘At the end of the season you, the supporters and the players will judge my work. And most importantly my boss, my owner, my board will judge.’

After talking down their chances last season, Mourinho, who starts his campaign against newlypromoted Burnley on Monday, admits Chelsea are title contenders. But he claims some managers are given an easier ride than others when it comes to rating success.

‘You don’t look with the same eyes on different people, don’t measure people by the same dimensions,’ he explained. ‘ For some to reach success is to achieve this and for others to achieve success i s to achieve that. Because of my last 10 years and Chelsea’s last 10 years, I understand why you always put the level high for myself and Chelsea.

‘I really don’t care about it. I just care about being myself, to work hard every day, to have ambition to win the next game, it doesn’t matter which c ompetition or which opponent. I want to win against Burnley, that’s the first step.’

Perhaps the toughest decision Mourinho faced ahead of this new campaign was who to pick as his No 1 goalkeeper: Thibaut Courtois, who has spent three seasons on loan at Atletico Madrid, or Petr Cech, who has made the position his own since he joined the club in June 2004, a day before Mourinho was announced as manager for his first spell.

Mourinho considers both to be in the top three goalkeepers in the world. He appears to believe the 22year- old Belgian is finally ready to take over the mantle from Cech, a decade his senior.

But Mourinho will not disrespect Cech by playing him with secondstring sides in less important games and suggests there is a still a role for him to play at the club.

‘I must support the keeper who is not first choice,’ he said. ‘Supporting him is not to give him a Capital One Cup game. It is to show him my trust when no one is expecting that he plays. I did that with Cech and Carlo Cudicini. I played Cudicini against Real Betis in the Champions League in the first game of the group, not in the sixth when we had qualified.

‘I also played him in one league match when we were not champions, not after being champions. The best way to show a player you trust him is to play him when no one expects it and i n games where there are responsibilities. With these two I can do that.’