Mourinho plays down Chelsea’s Christmas lead -SPORT

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho believes his side are currently the best in the Premier League and deserve to be top of the table at Christmas, but warns the Blues they face a tough task over the festive period.
The London outfit re-established their three-point lead at the top flight summit with a 2-0 victory at Stoke on Monday night.

It was a vital win for their title chase, after defending champions Manchester City drew level on points with a 3-0 weekend win over Crystal Palace.
 

There’s little doubt Chelsea deserve their place at the top of the tree, having lost just once against Newcastle this term, yet Mourinho insists his side will come up against a sterner test in their upcoming fixtures.
"What we did in the past is not important," the manager said.
"What's important is this season and this season we are top of the league since day one and we are there because we are playing really well.

"In my opinion we are the best team, we were the best team until this day. That's why we are top of the league.
"We start this period of Christmas knowing our fixtures are more difficult than any other ones. Three matches away - Stoke, Southampton and Tottenham – and one match at home against West Ham, who are doing amazingly well this season.
Goalscorer John Terry, whose header came after just two minutes against the Potters, agreed with his coach, admitting City and third place Manchester United still pose a very real threat to Chelsea’s bid for the crown.

"We’re just taking it game by game at the moment,” the Blues skipper told Sky Sports.
"You look at City, they've kind of come from nowhere really and Man United are back in the fold as well,"

"With the good teams around us, they can put a run of five or seven games together and all of a sudden they're back in it.
"It was an important win for us to secure that top spot for Christmas but it's a long way to go.
"We've got a tough game at home against West Ham [on Boxing Day] which was difficult last year."

Mourinho was delighted with his team's performance on the night and felt they showed good spirit at the traditionally hostile Britannia.
"Fantastic performance," he added. "I think these are the matches where the victory means a bit more than three points.
"It means the three points but it means also: feel the right spirit, feel the team, feel the atmosphere, feel what the players are ready to do to try to win the championship.

"I'm really pleased with the victory because we won for sure in one of the most difficult places to win."