February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
You may recall what Mourinho said he was going to do before he took the reigns at Chelsea. Winning the title was his goal and that’s fair enough. Back then he had just won the Champions League with FC Porto. But the confident and perhaps cocky manner he predicted a Premiership did not go down at too well with soccer fans.
Mourinho now knows that big guns like Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool are not the only teams to challenge. London derbies are also massive games to overcome. Furthermore, Bolton are no pushovers as they hold their own in the early stages and we all know they usually finish strong towards the end of the season. Everton have popped up out of nowhere to land in third spot and it looks like they are focused on getting their acts together as early as possible. Within a couple of games since Bobby Robson was let go from Newcastle, the team has climbed into the top 10.
While Manchester United gets off to a bad start, or so it seems, it cannot be ignored that the so-called smaller clubs are improving. Middlesbrough, Aston Villa and Charlton are also top 10. Mourinho is in for many more games where opposition will slow things down. His claim that he was somewhat surprised that such negative tactics are used in the Premier is na