Mourinho accepts fourth place Chelsea finish becoming more hard

And Vardy, whose record goal in 11 consecutive Premier League games came during November, picked up the player of the month gong.

In contrast, this time previous year Chelsea were top and Leicester were bottom, 26 points behind the Blues.

“Before we lost the last three points against Bournemouth (last week), I was convinced of fourth, of a great December for us”.

Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri has consistently played down his side’s chances of remaining in first place and insisted reaching 40 points, a tally likely to secure their top-flight status, remains the team’s priority.

“The reality is that some clubs are doing so well, and some are not capable of doing what people are used to”.

Mourinho succeeded Ranieri in the Chelsea job back in 2004, and clashed with him when both managed in Italy between 2008 and 2010, but only had huge praise for the Italian on the eve of their meeting – stating that the Leicester boss has been by far the best coach in the Premier League this season.

“The bad results are not normal, but the situation of any manager keeping his job and having the chance to improve and to have the chance to finish his work, that’s normal”, Mourinho said.

“We can get a run of four or five wins in a row and we can finish fourth”. “I think Ranieri is showing he has that nice feeling for the club, but I also believe in what he says”. “Maybe I have to think twice before saying that again”, said Mourinho, speaking ahead of Monday’s match between Leicester and Chelsea.

The Portuguese said much the same after the goalless draw at Tottenham and last Saturday’s defeat to Bournemouth – Chelsea’s eighth in the Premier League this season – took him by surprise.

Owen wrote on his blog for Colossus Bets: “I see Chelsea are around 6-4 favourites to win at Leicester on Monday night, and that is obviously pretty hard to justify on this season’s form, even if they did beat Porto 2-0 on Wednesday night”.