Jose Mourinho is pinning his hopes on old foes Liverpool to drag Chelsea back into the Barclays Premiership title race. While the Blues were toasting Carling Cup success in Cardiff, Manchester United took the opportunity to move nine points clear of Mourinho's men with victory at Fulham.Mourinho is unconcerned about the points gap, believing his side are in exactly the same situation they were before the weekend, albeit needing to win their game in hand against Manchester City to close the deficit to six once more. However, with the final stages of the run-in fast approaching, Mourinho is aware the next change in fortune needs to favour Chelsea, otherwise any hopes of emulating United's unique hat-trick of Premiership crowns can be dismissed.
So, with the Red Devils facing one of their toughest tests of the entire campaign at Anfield on Saturday lunchtime, Mourinho is looking for a favour from Rafael Benitez's boys. "We have to keep winning and see whether the next step is to close the gap, or for it to widen," observed Mourinho, whose side visit out-of-form Portsmouth at the weekend.
No-one at Chelsea is forgetting United still have to visit Stamford Bridge, although it is looking increasingly likely the Londoners will have to win the clash if they are to stand any chance of overhauling Sir Alex Ferguson's men. The worry for Chelsea is the game will turn out to be meaningless anyway if, as expected, it is put back from its present April 15 date to the final midweek of the season because one of the title rivals reach the FA Cup semi-finals.
No-one within the Blues camp is ready to throw in the towel just yet. But, as Mourinho suggests, fortune appears to be favouring United just now, with the Fulham win yet another example of Lady Luck smiling on them. "The information I have is that it was a completely undeserved result," said Mourinho. "Football is like this. Sometimes you win when you should lose. But it appears everything is on their side at the moment. "This is a season when they have had no injuries. In previous seasons that has happened to us.
"The only thing we can do is try to progress in the knockout competitions and, at this moment, we are in the last 16 in the Champions League and the last eight of the FA Cup."