Jose Mourinho lands dig on former player after silencing sack talk

Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea breathed new sense of positivity in its stuttering season after winning 2-0 at Stamford Bridge to top Champions League Group Stage.

“Every team finishing second wants to play us or Zenit St Petersburg”, Mourinho told reporters after a win that eased the pressure on the two-times Champions League victor.

“I think everybody wants to play us”, Mourinho added.

“They don’t want to play Barcelona, they don’t want to play Real Madrid, they don’t want to play Atletico (Madrid), they don’t want to play Bayern (Munich)”.

“But when we won in Porto in 2004 we were not candidates”.

Stamford Bridge sang his name and Abramovich applauded.

A 12th-minute own goal which rebounded off Ivan Marcano under pressure from Diego Costa and a well-worked second-half strike from Brazilian Willian ensured victory for the struggling English champions and sent Porto into the Europa League.

However, Costa failed to improve on a record of only four goals in 19 games and has admitted he must get better.

However, he impressed the Chelsea manager on his recall against Porto, helping create both goals but missing some goalscoring chances.

“Their record does not mean anything as Chelsea are Chelsea and Mourinho is Mourinho”, he said.

Spanish striker Diego Costa was returned to Mourinho’s starting line-up, and although acknowledging his lack in confidence in front of goal, was pleased with the forward’s performance.

Mourinho also said the Brazil-born Spain striker’s lack of confidence was clear against Porto, where Costa forced a lucky break in an opening goal after which the visitors could not respond. I just remember the first goal here against Kiev was a defender who scored an own-goal, today it was a defender who scored an own-goal.

“It was good for Chelsea to win and now in two or three months everything will change”. Otherwise Chelsea might not be back in the Champions League next season.

The Foxes have stunned the top flight after beating relegation last season under former boss Nigel Pearson but Ranieri knows they still need to prove they can maintain their form.