Chelsea’s win against Fulham this weekend has given them some much needed breathing space in this title run in.
Chelsea finished the weekend four points clear of second placed Liverpool and third placed Arsenal. They are six points above Manchester City but the Eastlands outfit have two games in hand and will be boosted by the weekends Carling Cup victory, as well as the return of forward Sergio Aguero.
Despite Mourinho’s fears about the adverse reaction of the fixture pile up, Chelsea have shown the resilience needed to win the Premier League title with a 3-1 win against West London rivals Fulham, courtesy of an Andre Schurrle treble.
Chelsea had a gruelling Champions League clash away to Galatasaray on Wednesday evening and despite this still had to play Saturday afternoon at 3pm. Mourinho has been vocal about the fixtures and the detrimental effect it could have on Chelsea, but it seems the Special One’s mind games have worked yet again and has been able to get the maximum out of his squad through this particularly difficult build up of games.
The returning Nemanja Matic, who was cup tied for the midweek clash in Turkey praised Chelsea’s second half performance.
“In the second half we played very well, we tried to play good football, our football. We used the space that the Fulham players gave us and we are happy to win and take these very important three points”
Chelsea are ten points clear of next weekends opponents Tottenham, there is no doubt Mourinho will earmark the home fixtures against both London rivals Spurs and Arsenal as crucial if they are to win the Premier League title. Matic was delighted to see that title rivals Arsenal dropped points after losing to Stoke 1-0 at the Britannia Stadium.
“Like we said before, we will play game by game, to win every game if it is possible and we don’t look too much at other clubs, but for us it is good if our rivals lose some points and on Saturday Arsenal lost so that is good for us”
The Blues run in is more than favourable in comparison with their title rivals with fixtures against Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Cardiff, Norwich and Sunderland. However it will be the trip to Anfield on the 27th April that could ultimately decide the fate of the title.
