Arsenal have been awesome, United are finally firing for Van Gaal but Jose is right – Chelsea deserve this title.

Arsenal have been awesome, United are finally firing for Van Gaal but Jose is right – Chelsea deserve this title.

JOSE MOURINHO is right (if a little bit biased). Chelsea do deserve this season’s Premier League title.

In-form Manchester United roll into Stamford Bridge this weekend looking to take advantage of the faltering momentum that almost allowed QPR to take an unlikely point last Sunday.

The neutrals will most likely be hoping for a United win. Some because they want a big Premier League finish, some because they want to see someone shut the Special One up and some because, well, they just don’t like Chelsea.

Arsenal’s customary end-of-season flurry – with eight wins on the spin – means they could yet make a fight of it if Chelsea somehow do a Devon Loch.

But, as Mourinho said at QPR last Sunday, the Blues have fought for the right to party this summer. They have been the most consistent team from the start.

He explained: “It is not normal for a team to be top of the League since day one, since August every game. Top of the league.

“That’s the team that deserves all the credit. Good runs, other teams with good runs? We had a good run since day one. I think we deserve it.”

It is hard to argue with that. Chelsea have blazed a trail from the outset. They have played the most effective football and ground out results even when they have not been easy on the eye.

They have the leading contender for Footballer of the Year in Eden Hazard. They may be faltering with star striker Diego Costa out injured, No.2 Loic Remy struggling and neither Nemanja Matic nor Cesc Fabregas as productive as they were earlier this season. 

But, as they showed with that last-gasp win at QPR, they have warriors who find a way to win. They have the most complete squad. Not because they have cash coming out of their ears but because they have bought sensibly while Mourinho has performed effective surgery.

The Special One has a track record of being ruthless and skilful in addressing any given team’s failings.

Oscar looks set to become the latest victim of his demand for discipline and a high work rate.

Andre Schurrle bit the dust in January even though he wanted to stay. 

Mourinho only does: ‘I’ll do better next week.’ so many times.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has been criticised for staying loyal to certain players for far too long. Manuel Pellegrini at Manchester City is such a patsy that the players pretty much do as they please.

Not at Chelsea.

Sniffy City supremos Txiki Begiristan and Ferran Soriano chose not to appoint Mourinho back in 2008 when they worked for Barcelona.

They snubbed him again two years ago when they sought a replacement for Roberto Mancini at the Etihad.

How they must regret that as they survey the wreckage of a shambolic campaign under lame-duck Pellegrini. 

Talk of the Citizens labouring under an ageing squad is nonsense. Mourinho would have extracted so much more – in terms of discipline and performance – from that City dressing room.

Now, as the Special One closes in on yet another title, the defending Champions face a fight to ensure they are not reeled in and caught in the race for fourth place.

It is actually a shame that Arsenal could win only five of their opening 14 matches in all competitions at the start of this season. We might well have been shaping up for a big finish over the final few games.

In the League, however, the Gunners failed to win at Everton, Leicester and Chelsea during that run while at home they were held by City, Spurs and Hull.

United could win only three wins of their opening ten League games as Louis van Gaal struggled to get his men to understand his methods.

Now both teams are flying (United have lost just twice in the League since November) but they surely have left themselves with too much to do.

Juan Mata will rock up at Stamford Bridge this weekend determined to prove Mourinho wrong for marginalising and then selling him.

Mourinho, however, is a past master at neutralising players that other teams are unable to stop. 

Expect him to nullify the potential threat of Marouane Fellaini and Ashley Young too.

This column does not expect the battle of Stamford Bridge to be pretty. Mourinho will not care about entertainment or artistic impression.

What matters is the result. Even more so now at this crucial stage of the campaign.

Chelsea were serial thrillers earlier this season. They stuck six past Everton, four past Swansea, three past Aston Villa and another six past Maribor in the Champions League.

Yes, the wheels have come off a bit during the second half of the campaign and they were ruthlessly exposed by PSG in the Champions League.

Avenging that defeat next season, however, will be Phase Two of the Mourinho plan for the new Chelsea.

A result against United this weekend will go a long way towards completing Phase One.