Ranieri, who preceded Mourinho as Chelsea boss in 2004, has presided over a remarkable start to the Premier League season for the Foxes, as his former club have gone from champions to flirting with the relegation zone.
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The Premier League are 17 points behind league-leaders Leicester City – their opponents on Monday – and 14 points behind fourth-placed Manchester United. “I think Ranieri is showing he has that nice feeling for the club, but I also believe in what he says”.
“I said a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t believe they can be champions”, the Portuguese coach told a news conference on Friday.
“The worst thing that can happen to them is to finish top six, which should be a phenomenal season too”.
“Some of the players I got was his decision to buy them”, Mourinho added of Ranieri.
The managers have had a rocky relationship in the past and clashed while Ranieri was at Roma and Mourinho was Inter Milan boss in 2010.
Jamie Vardy is experiencing a goal drought – he did not score in last week’s win as Leicester team-mate Riyad Mahrez’s hat-trick earned a 3-0 win over Swansea. For Chelsea, the lack of a consistent goalscorer has reinforced their problems, although Diego Costa at least showed flickers of his old form during the win over Porto. I don’t think in this moment that they are thinking about relegation any more or not even in the bottom half.
“They’re a fantastic team and have fantastic players, so at some point we know they’re going to come good again and go on a run of winning games”.
“We now need to focus on the Premier League and play like we did against Porto”. “The next season he went to Roma and I fought with Roma until the last match of the season to be champion. Independent of the defeat against Bournemouth, I think the team is improving”.
Romelu Lukaku’s five goals see him nominated for the Player of the Month with teammate Ross Barkley joining him after three goals and two assists. I feel sympathy when people finish their job in the middle of a marathon and another one comes to replace.
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Chelsea have an expensively assembled team, with Diego Costa, Eden Hazard, Oscar, Kurt Zouma and Thibaut Courtois all in the anticipated starting XI but it is Willian who is most likely to influence the game from a Blues perspective.
