• Premier League

United still in title race, says Chelsea's Mourinho

Jose Mourinho says the Premier League title race is still wide open and insists even Manchester United are contenders.

Manchester City's defeat at Liverpool means Manuel Pellegrini's side are now five points behind Mourinho's Chelsea, who have also played a game less after taking the weekend off league action to beat Tottenham 2-0 in the League Cup final.

"It's in the hands of everyone," Mourinho said. "We have lots of difficult matches to play. City have difficult matches.

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"United are third [currently fourth, after Arsenal's win over Everton], right? Nine [10] points [behind]? They are in the title race too. Liverpool [beating Manchester City], I predicted that."

Mourinho banned television from the hotel and team bus before the final at Wembley to prevent his players from being distracted by City's result against Liverpool.

"I knew that was an impossible mission, but I didn't want the television on in the hotel or on the bus," Mourinho explained.

"I told them [the players] I didn't want any kind of manifestation or disappointment if City scored in the last minute, or Liverpool won. I wanted complete silence.

"We were successful on that. But one member of my staff jumped up in the bus. Silvino [Louro, an assistant first-team coach]. I wanted to kill the guy. He broke the rule."

Chelsea claimed the first major trophy of the season at Wembley thanks to John Terry's first-half strike and Kyle Walker's own goal early in the second period.

The victory was Mourinho's 10th in 12 major finals and his 21st trophy in 15 years of management.

Jose Mourinho led the celebrations at Wembley © Getty Images

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