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Chelsea nears first title in 50 years
Just two victories away from its first league title for half a century, Chelsea aims to show defending champion Arsenal on Wednesday why it is 11 points clear at the top of the Premier League.
A Chelsea victory over Arsenal at Stamford Bridge will leave Mourinho's Blues in the happy position of clinching the title with four games to spare by beating Fulham at home on Saturday. "We are almost champions but not yet and if we can win soon it is good because we have played about 50 matches and some players could have some rest and prepare for the Champions League," Mourinho said. "I have no champagne ready yet for the title, this would be wrong. I just want to get the points to be champions. That is the only focus of me and the players." Chelsea, funded by billionaire Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, has lost just one league game all season and has a remarkable 62-12 goals tally from 32 matches. Arsenal won the championship last season without losing any of its 38 games, however, and Arsene Wenger says he has plenty of hope for the future even though he can't match Chelsea's spending power. "That would be impossible, unless we find some oil at the training ground," he said. "I feel we need a good team and we have one. I am very confident that, with the problems we have had this season and with 70 points after 32 games, it is quite fantastic." "It tells you a lot about the qualities of our young players," added Wenger, who has put teenagers such as Francesc Fabregas and Philippe Senderos into his starting lineup this season along with 21-year-olds Jose Antonio Reyes, Robin van Persie and Mathieu Flamini. "We had not reached that total in any other season than last season and we would be top of any other league in Europe," Wenger said. "But Chelsea have had an exceptional season. Are they capable of repeating that? I don't know, it's not easy to do it every year." Arsenal players were quoted as saying that Chelsea, who tend to build slowly from the back, had failed to play the sort of exciting soccer that made the Gunners one of the most attractive teams around. "Chelsea have more points than us but they play an excessively conservative game," Reyes said. "I don't know if they have gained many new fans this season." Reyes will probably start in attack for the Gunners with Thierry Henry failing to overcome the groin injury that forced him to miss Saturday's 3-0 FA Cup semifinal victory over Blackburn. Swedish midfielder Fredrik Ljungberg is also ruled out with a recurrence of his hip injury. Wenger said that an Arsenal victory would give his players some hope they could still catch Chelsea. "If we win, we come back to eight points and the event's not over," he said. "Eight points and five games to go and you never know. "We want to get as close as possible to Chelsea. You cannot say they are 90 percent there and we'll just let them grab the title and let them get away with it. We want to beat them tomorrow night." It looks almost certain that Mourinho's spectacular streak of titles is continuing with the Champions League still to come. Mourinho, whose off-field squabbles with UEFA, Barcelona and referee Anders Frisk have detracted from his team's performances, guided FC Porto to the UEFA Cup and Champions League titles in successive seasons as well as back-to-back domestic league titles before moving to Chelsea last June. The run of successes continued with a League Cup final triumph over Liverpool and he is now about to win the Premier League title. Chelsea faces Liverpool in the Champions League semifinal and Mourinho's only failure was in the FA Cup, where it was ousted by Newcastle in the fifth round. The Stamford Bridge meeting is one of eight Premier League matches, with third-placed Manchester United going to Everton, which is fourth. The matchup means that Wayne Rooney, who left Everton for United before the start of the season, will get a hot reception from Toffees fans who have never forgiven him for walking out. Elsewhere, Aston Villa hosts Charlton, Blackburn welcomes Crystal Palace, Birmingham goes to Manchester City, last-placed Norwich receives Newcastle, Liverpool travels to Portsmouth and West Bromwich Albion visits Tottenham. Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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