POOR LITTLE JOSE

From today's Guardian.

Chelsea face an enormous fixture pile-up, as well as the possibility of three games against Manchester United in the space of two weeks, if they are to complete an unprecedented quadruple of major trophies. With both clubs advancing to the FA Cup semi-finals on Monday night, their scheduled Premiership game on April 15 at Stamford Bridge has been moved to become the penultimate match of the league season on Wednesday, May 9.

Jose Mourinho believes the annual fixture congestion in English football is harmful to the clubs' chances of success in Europe. "This period, April-May is unbelievable. We go to every country, and every club involved in the top European competitions, they have a much better situation to deal with than the English teams," he said.

The Chelsea manager is bullish, however, about the club's chances of maintaining their push for four trophies. "We have never played with our best team, never - all this season, we've never played with our best team," he said. "But when we play with a team similar to our best team, we show what we can do.

"In December and January, I almost played centre-back. Those months reflect the points we lost. We had two matches, we conceded four goals and we lost points against Fulham and Reading. We go to Liverpool and within five minutes the game was over - no Ricardo [Carvalho], no John Terry, nobody. I think the season is a brilliant season by these boys, we just need to win more trophies."