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JOSE MOURINHO has stoked up his bitter rivalry with Liverpool by writing off their chances of snatching Chelsea’s title.
The Blues boss still bristles when anyone mentions their Champions League semi-final defeat at Anfield in May 2005 and last season’s FA Cup semi-final KO.
But while Mourinho believes Rafa Benitez’s Kop aces are capable of posing a threat, he fears Manchester United and Arsenal MORE.
And he put the boot in even further when he insisted the Gunners and United play BETTER football and have invested wisely in quality players.
United this week finally landed Michael Carrick from Spurs in an £18.6million swoop while Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has added £6.8m buy Tomas Rosicky to his impressive group of hungry youngsters.
Mourinho said: “I still believe Man United and Arsenal will, in spite of the fact Arsenal finished fourth and Liverpool third, still be the better teams.
“The quality of their football, the way they play, the improvements in their squads, it all adds up.
“United will improve a lot by having Michael Carrick. He’s a very, very good player and he will improve them.
“United have had some problems since Roy Keane went to Celtic but they have already a very good team.
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“They don’t need to go out and buy 10 new players to improve their team, they just choose the right players for the right position.
“I think it’s the right choice to get Carrick. He’s a big improvement for them and I think they can be a very strong team.
“Arsenal were not successful in the Premiership. But you can say they had success because they reached the final of the Champions League playing very good football.
“They have a very good group of players and some young players with great motivation. Rosicky is also a very important player for them and can bring them the right kind of quality.
“I don’t want to compare Rosicky to Dennis Bergkamp because Bergkamp was more than special.
“But there is no doubt Rosicky can bring that kind of quality to the left side.
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With predictable timing, Jose Mourinho is yet again writing off Liverpool's title chances, following on from his 'sour grapes' attack on the Reds after the FA Cup semi-final.
Only a scared man writes off a rival's chances. But please Jose, keep it coming. By 'talking too much' about how Liverpool pose no great threat it can only serve to motivate those at Anfield, while in a way lower the pressure on the Reds. If enough people believe Mourinho, then Liverpool can surely cause a big surprise.
What was interesting this time was not that he wrote off Liverpool yet again, but that he placed Arsenal and Manchester United clearly above the Reds when it comes to challengers, when BenÃ*tez's team proved last season that they are at least on a par with the pair these days. Apparently, "the improvements in their squads" are a key issue to the Chelsea manager.
Which is odd, seeing as Manchester United have only just made their first signing of the summer in the expensive Michael Carrick (the poor man's Xabi Alonso), while Arsenal have only added Thomas Rosicky.
But that's not the key issue for me. Not only have Liverpool added more players, to solve a greater variety of problems and create even more options, but United and Arsenal have also lost extremely key men. I've yet to see anything to tell me that either United or Arsenal are going into this season anywhere near as strong as they entered 2005/06.
Liverpool are not having to replace players like van Nistelrooy, Keane, Pires, Campbell and Bergkamp. Of players in that class, only Didi Hamann has left Anfield, but that was because central midfield is Liverpool's strongest area and Momo Sissoko's arrival had already effectively phased out the German.
BenÃ*tez has clearly bought well this summer – in theory at least. No one can tell how new players will work out in the long term. But the addition of these particular players makes a lot of sense. Two key signings had excellent seasons in the Premiership last time around, despite playing in unfashionable clubs, and so settling into the English game will not be a shock.
Jermaine Pennant will offer Liverpool real pace and penetration down the right. It was evident against Grasshoppers – a team already well into their competitive football this season, and therefore far sharper – that Pennant can skin a full-back with ease.
What was more pleasing was his general awareness and his decision making. He's not some head-down-hit-the-byline kind of winger, although he'll do that when the chance is there. He cuts inside and outside opponents, and finds passes when passes are on, rather than blindly going for the cross at all costs. But when it comes to crossing, he is potent. Providing he continues to mature as a person, he can become a real star.
Mark Gonzalez will offer a similar threat down the left, although may take longer to settle, while Fabio Aurelio offers Rafa a very different kind of full-back. The Brazilian's delivery into the box will help Peter Crouch, as indeed will that from Gonzalez and Pennant.
Up front, Craig Bellamy offers the kind of pace Djibril Cissé supplied at times last season, but does so with better control; he has also proved that he can score goals at an impressive rate in the Premiership, unlike the departing Frenchman. And of course, Robbie Fowler is back for a full season at Liverpool, making him another new addition in many ways, much like fellow winter arrivals Daniel Agger and Jan Kromkamp.
In making out that Liverpool are merely a competitive team who defend well, the Chelsea manager may be in for a shock. Nearly all of Rafa's acquisitions this summer have been quick and direct attacking players, while January signing Paul Anderson fits into the same category.
The one area the Reds needed to improve was their finishing, especially in the games against the three big rivals. According to stats collated by Oliver Anderson for our book, 'The Red Review', when you take an overall look at all the head-to-heads between the top sides, the Reds actually had some of the most impressive figures, with the highest average for possession, and the greatest difference between the amount of shots taken per encounter (quite a lot) with the amount of shots conceded (very few).
The trouble was the Reds weren't as clinical as their opponents, and too few points were won as a result. This season, the games against these teams will be crucial.
Again, the new arrivals will help address this shortcoming. Djibril Cissé and Fernando Morientes both took more shots for their goals than Bellamy, while Fowler's conversion rate was quite simply stunning. Where Cissé needed four shots to score, and Morientes required over seven, Fowler took less than two shots for each of his goals. In a word, clinical.
In the last two years each of Bellamy, Crouch and Fowler has had one season where they've scored Premiership goals at a rate of 0.6 goals-per-game: a rate that, over 38 games, would work out at 23 league goals each.
Of course, the task is to get all three scoring close to that rate in a significant amount of games for Liverpool; all three will be rotated, so they won't play all 38 games, but if each scores at a good rate, even if none tops 15 league goals, they'll all add up. As will those from Luis Garcia, Steven Gerrard and the new midfielders.
Last season both Bellamy and Fowler scored league goals at a higher rate than Chelsea's two main forwards, Drogba and Crespo. Chelsea's success has revolved around how widely the goals are shared between its players, and that's now something the Reds are more than capable of matching. With the added creativity and pace in wide areas, the quality of Liverpool's chances should improve, too. Pennant, in particular, looks capable of putting chances on a plate.
Normally the Community Shield is fairly unimportant in the grand scheme of things. But with this being the 11th meeting between Liverpool and Chelsea in less than two years, and with the Reds having just eaten away the majority of Chelsea's league lead, it's more of a psychological contest – a marker for the season ahead. It won't define anything, but it's no meaningless friendly.
Chelsea perhaps have greater reason to be running scared. They are clearly changing tack this summer, and going for a few older 'superstars'. There's also talk of having to change from their tried-and-tested formation, and that could be a case of fixing what wasn't broken. They also appear obsessed with finally winning a European Cup, so will their eye be taken off the ball domestically? Will the hunger be present in the league?
Chelsea will still be clear favourites for a third consecutive title, and rightly so. They exist in their own financial universe, and continue to pay fees and wages that no other team can match. Arsenal, meanwhile, will be much better in the league than last season, but then quite frankly they need to be; they can also help take more points from Chelsea and United, something they failed to do last season.
But however well those three teams do this season, I'm confident Liverpool have the ability and tactical flexibility to finally make a significant challenge for no.19.
