Premier League: Mourinho and Chelsea need to think about winning points not scoring them

Jose Mourinho doesn't look happy - just for a change

Chelsea are in danger of failing to win a Premier League title for the second successive season despite being red hot favourites to do so, and Andy Brassell believes Jose Mourinho is the man guilty of allowing that to happen...

It was the Monday afternoon bulletin to put the cap on a lousy weekend. Following the loss of two valuable points on Saturday, the news that Ashley Barnes of Burnley will not be subject to retrospective disciplinary action after his X-rated challenge on Nemanja Mati was one final insult for Chelsea, already faced with losing their midfield kingpin for three games after his reaction.

In the current climate, the echoes threaten to resonate. It gives Chelsea, and Jos Mourinho, a legitimate sense of grievance after a game in which they had a few causes for complaint. It is the last thing that they, or he, need at this moment.

Let us be clear - there is no question who has the best team, and squad, in the Premier League. If everything were to unfold as it should, the logical conclusion would be The Blues winning the title by a eight to ten-point margin. Yet the myriad wars being waged against authority by Mourinho at present are threatening to define their season in a way that they shouldn't.

After the Diego Costa ban controversy, the failure to punish Barnes gives Chelsea further reason to peddle the line that they're being victimised. There appears little prospect of Mati's red-card ban being reduced - he was bang to rights, whatever the provocation - but recognition of the context in which the chain of events unfolded might have sated their feelings to some degree.

Instead, the cycle of tension will continue. Mourinho was not without reason in his criticism of referee Martin Atkinson on Saturday. When he defended Mati's emotional reaction, he had a point. What came next was different.

"Any other club would have the power to appeal Mati's red card," he said. This is spurious, to say the least. What basis does he have for suggesting this? It is no secret that Mourinho's tactics, throughout his career, have been to examine officials as much as opponents with his words, but it is hard to see where his team can gain any advantage from this approach.

Chelsea are in serious danger of taking their eye off the ball in a title race that shouldn't really be a race. They should already have it all but wrapped up. There is no need to overreact. They still have a five-point cushion despite recent deviations from the plan.

Nevertheless, just two wins in eight (three if you want to include an extra-time victory) - in all competitions - is not up to the standard set in the opening stanza of the season by a hugely talented squad. Their second-half performance at Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League - justified by some of Mourinho's supporters as some sort of tactical masterclass in the light of a satisfactory result - was alarmingly weak for a team with their ambitions.

It is valid, after a certain point, to wonder whether Mourinho's words are serving to compromise Chelsea, just as Rafael Bentez's infamous rant once did to a rising Liverpool. Perhaps it is even worth re-examining his playing down of Chelsea's title ambitions last season.

They could have won the league - not to say they should have, but Mourinho's belittling of their chances in the face of all reasonable evidence, including that masterful win at Manchester City, was ultimately self-fulfilling prophecy in the most frustrating way. Avoidable losses against Aston Villa and Sunderland, whatever their overall worthiness, torpedoed their chances.

Chelsea are stronger now, and still in the box seat - 1.330/100 to win the Premier League, with Manchester City the only other realistic contender at 4.77/2 (Arsenal are next best at a whopping 80.079/1).

This, of course, is exactly why they need to extricate themselves from the current point scoring and just show themselves in their best light. Otherwise, they could become the best team in recent memory to miss out on the league.