Jose Mourinho believes Chelsea and Arsenal were the two teams to have emerged from the January transfer window significantly stronger than they were before. The Manchester United manager helped engineer the biggest coup of the month, stealing in to prise Alexis Sanchez from the Gunners in a swap deal which saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan move in the opposite direction. Arsene Wenger also added Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to his forward line in a club-record £56million transfer and was further boosted by Mesut Ozil’s decision to commit to a new long-term contract. Antonio Conte, meanwhile, appeared to be at loggerheads with the Chelsea board for much of the month over transfer targets but ended up with a far more balanced squad having added Ross Barkley, Emerson Palmieri and Olivier Giroud.
Speaking about what is set to be an ultra-competitive race for the top four, Mourinho said: ‘Chelsea is champions again, fantastic market, Liverpool is a great team, Arsenal improved a lot in the market. ‘Tottenham is a fantastic team and they are five points behind us, so we are doing quite well, with some negative moments, Wednesday was one. ‘It Is very important to do better than last season and try to win something, and if not do better.’ Speaking about the need to bounce back after Wednesday’s comprehensive 2-0 defeat to Tottenham at Wembley, he added: he game is important because we need points to be the first of the last. ‘We have to try to finish second, we are in this positions all season, we were first for a few weeks and then we were always second. ‘I don’t remember us being fourth, fifth or sixth, we have been there since the beginning of the season, better than last season in every aspect, points, position, number of goals scored, conceded, better in everything so we have to try to stay there and is not easy because very good teams.’
