Porto result relieves pressure on Jose Mourinho

With several members of their squad failing to hit the heights of last season, Mourinho has identified the four players he believes have suffered the most acute losses of form.

Leicester only have two injury concerns Richie de Laet and Matty James while Chelsea are only without Radamel Falcao who has a muscular problem and Gary Cahill who is doubtful because of his ankle.

Key Stat: Chelsea have won their last eight games against Leicester in all competitions and haven’t lost to the Foxes since 2001 – a game in which Ranieri was Chelsea manager.

Mourinho said: “If it was his decision to buy Frank Lampard, to buy Eidur Gudjohnsen, to buy Claude Makelele, then these were great decisions”.

“Or when things go wrong, it’s about managers, when things go well, it’s about players”.

Mourinho said that the Blues have no fresh injury concerns coming into the game against the league leaders, meaning that only Radamel Falcao remains unavailable.

The Chelsea centre-half has been one of the positives for the west London side in an otherwise disappointing season after securing a first-team spot in Jose Mourinho’s side.

Mourinho’s succession of Ranieri at Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2004 was a drawn-out and unsavoury affair.

“I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but it’s football”.

Mourinho railed against the firing culture in football, yet he has no issue with the moment he replaced Ranieri at Stamford Bridge, despite the Italian having a further three years remaining on his contract.

“You have to change a few words, you have to say something, you have to get an answer”. This is when you finish a cycle and another cycle opens.

“I even feel a little bit…” “I am always against the sack”, he said. I told a couple of weeks ago I don’t believe they can be champions. I called him to wish him the best. I was in contact when he got the Leicester job, just a normal word of good luck.

“Obviously in the big teams sometimes we face very low blocks where technical players to play in the box are very much needed, but I think a fast player with objective and being direct can have success everywhere”.