Why winning gives leaders the blues

A team meeting in the wake of Tuesday's Champions' League defeat at Real Betis threw up the paradoxical problem for the Premiership champions.

"It is one thing to be in a situation where you know you cannot lose points in the Premiership, and another thing to have 10 or 12 points difference and feel, in this moment, no adrenaline," Mourinho said.

"A lot of people are better without pressure. Other people are better under pressure, and at Chelsea our dressing-room is full of top characters, of people used to playing for big things and big responsibilities, and we need this kind of adrenaline.

"Matches like the one we have on Sunday are the most difficult matches to play, but the easiest matches to prepare. I don't have to motivate players or demand their concentration or commitment or desire. So it is good timing."

Mourinho clearly believed the slackness that had crept into recent domestic games had carried over into Europe, adding pointedly that Chelsea had beaten the Spanish side 4-0 in their match at Stamford Bridge.

"When you win so many times it is difficult," he added, with the ghost of a smile. "It is true. Maybe we should have had that kind of conversation before we lose a game. It is human nature - and we are wrong. Only when the result is really negative do you go deep, chasing for reasons.

"When I said at the beginning of the season I thought that the Premiership would be more difficult for us, I was telling what I feel. At this moment I was thinking it would be a very short difference.

"It is stupid to say it is too easy for us. But the reality is that last season, with much more pressure, our reaction was much more positive. At the beginning of this season there was not this kind of pressure.

"But if you make mistakes and mistakes and we lose one, two, three matches, by one or two months instead of a 10-point lead we can have only one point. Are we waiting for that to perform again? That's the discussion we had. I expect to lose games,drop points, but I don't expect to have a bad period of consecutive negative results." That expectation is one which, perhaps until recently, his Manchester United counterpart Sir Alex Ferguson shared. Mourinho maintained, however, that Ferguson is still pre-eminent in his field.

Asked if he had sympathy for Ferguson, the Chelsea manager responded: "He is No 1 in the country in terms of prestige and status and silverware and years at a club and doesn't need support or sympathy. He just needs people to respect what he did.

"Sometimes people forget a little bit in football but he doesn't need my sympathy. I hope he loses on Sunday but after that I want him to finish second and to progress in the Champions' League.

"Of course he's passionate. That's why he's been so many years in charge at the highest level.

"He's won everything, he's been getting money for the last 20 years, it's about passion. He knows how to do it better than anybody. If he stays at United it's because he believes in his work and feels that he is still the best manager.

"Of course he believes the group believes in him. The worst thing in football is when the people you lead don't trust you or believe any more. If he's there it is because he feels he has the support of everybody and can bounce back to his normal level. That is why maybe this game is very dangerous for us."