I'm not superman: Mourinho
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-09-23 21:53

LISBON - Jose Mourinho has acknowledged that his Premiership champions Chelsea have yet to slip into top gear.

"I recognize that we still haven't done 90 completely good minutes this season," Mourinho told Portuguese daily Correio da Manha on Saturday.

"The pre-season was terrible because we almost had no time to practice and only had two training matches before the competition started," he said.

He went on to insist in the interview that he was not feeling under extra pressure from the London club's billionaire Russian owner Roman Abramovich to win the Champions League this season.

Mourinho has won two English Premiership titles with Chelsea but has so far been unable to add Europe's elite club prize to the Stamford Bridge trophy cabinet.

"I only let those who I want to put pressure on me and the pressure I put on myself is already enough for me to accept someone else putting any more on top of me.

"Today I don't have to prove anything to anyone. I have already passed that phase.

"I think that in football there are no supermen, only men who win more times than others."

Chelsea have been beaten by the eventual winners in both seasons since Mourinho arrived from FC Porto, losing to Liverpool in the semi-finals in 2005 and crashing out against Barcelona in the second round last term.

He joined the English club in June 2004 less than one month after winning the European title with the unfancied Portuguese side.