Remorseless Chelsea on autopilot as belief grows

Jose Mourinho has lost only two competitive matches in 2004 but the Chelsea manager's greatest achievement to date might well be building a side at Stamford Bridge which, he admitted yesterday, no longer needs the tough talking of their manager to continue their remorseless winning streak.

In 12 months, Mourinho has done what most managers wait a lifetime to achieve: he has won the European Cup, the Portuguese league title and amassed a five-point lead in the Premiership at the turn of the year. Before tomorrow's visit to Anfield he confirmed what many had long suspected about his side; that Chelsea's confidence has become self-perpetuating and, with a run of 11 games undefeated, his players do not need their manager to tell them they have hit title-winning form.

"The players believe we can win it, at this moment, they don't need me," Mourinho said. "I think at the beginning of the season they needed me to convince them. But they have self-confidence and the way they feel and work, the way they go to every match shows they don't need me for that belief.

"What happened to us after we lost at Manchester City was a big answer. We are ready for another answer when the bad day arrives. So when we lose again don't think we will lose the next game because we won't. I'm not worried that we've not won it [the title] before because there's always a first time. Sometimes the difference between doing it and not doing it is very small."

Close examination of Mourinho's record this year would give his side good reason to be confident. He has lost five games, although two of them were with Porto after they had already won the league, and another was Chelsea's defeat to the Portuguese champions when they had already qualified for the next stage of the Champions' League. The only blots are a Portuguese cup final defeat to Benfica and Chelsea's improbable Premiership loss to City in October.

That's why when he says that his side are comfortable at the top of the Premiership it is hard not to take him at his word. To remain there over the next two games against Liverpool and Middlesbrough would be proof that even the heavy Christmas programme, which Mourinho expressed such an aversion to earlier in the month, has proved no obstacle to his side's daunting progress.

"When we got to the top of the league, the important thing was to stay there," Mourinho said. "We are first rather than being first, second, first and then second again. We had to show that we can win matches when we are first. And we did.

"We've done it for two months. Since we've been top of the league we've not lost. The distance was always the same. We've been five points ahead for at least one month and I think this has been important. But it's normal that our lead goes from five to two, from five to seven and so on. I'm not stupid. I don't need the press to tell me four games in 10 days is difficult."