Chelsea manager José Mourinho has taken a swipe at Manchester United by saying that their hopes of retaining the title are over after David Moyes’ team suffered a 3-1 defeat at the hands of his team. Manchester United were the visitors to Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea have enjoyed a good record this season. Moyes was coming into the match without two of his main players – Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie – not available due to fitness issues. The former Everton manager has not won in 47 matches against the traditional top four of Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal.

This record continued on Sunday after his team lost 3-1 following a hat-trick from Samuel Eto’o. The Cameroon international opened the scoring with a deflected effort, but it was largely due to the inept defending of United. His second goal also showed the huge defensive lapses within the champions. Immediately after the second half began, Chelsea were cruising after the 32-year-old poked in an effort from close range. Nemanja Vidic was sent off in a few minutes from time, while Rafael could also have received a red card for his two footed lunge on Gary Cahill.

As a result of this defeat, United have fallen a massive 14 points behind Arsenal in the table. Mourinho says that it is impossible to win the title from this position.

“Maybe if I say [United are out of title contention], some people from United would ask: ‘Who am I to say that?’. But I don’t think David will be upset if I say the reality: 14 points difference and 13 and 12 [to the others]. Can they recover to one of those teams? They can but to three of them? It needs three teams to have almost a collapse,” said Mourinho after the match.

The manager of Chelsea, Jose Mourinho, is not happy with the preparation of his team for the Champions League game against FC Basel which will be played at St. Jakob Park next Tuesday.

Because of the international break, Mourinho had been without his main players since the last few days as all of them were out playing for their respective national sides. They have just returned from the break and they will be off to Switzerland tomorrow for that game against FC Basel. Mourinho is not happy about all that. He reckons that the preparation of his team is not the best for the upcoming game.

Talking to the reporters yesterday, Mourinho said, “In the last 10 days or so, there were only 4 first team guys at the club. The rest were out on national duty and I had no idea what they were doing. All I could do was to watch them on TV.”

“That was not an ideal situation to be in as a manager. Before such an important game, you want to know how your players are training and if they are taking enough rest or not, but, I couldn’t do that because I didn’t have my players around.”

“They have just come back and I don’t know how they are mentally and physically. When a guy returns after playing for his national team, you are not sure about his fitness.”

Chelsea is in a good position in the Champions League at the moment. They are leading the points table of their group which is Group E. They have secured 9 points from 4 games with the help of 3 wins.

Even if the Blues stop Basel on a draw on Tuesday, they would make it to the Knockouts.