Jose Mourinho can learn a thing or two from Pep Guardiola

Jose Mourinho can learn a thing or two from Pep Guardiola. 

That's not something the Chelsea man would regularly tend to admit, given the well-documented rivalry between the two managers, a bitter spat which festered while they were in charge of Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively.

But last season at Bayern Munich, the Catalan struggled to motivate his players sufficiently when it became clear that the Bavarian side were going to march to Bundesliga success. Mourinho needs to learn from the difficulties Pep had and ensure the same problems don't affect his side. 

With Manchester City slipping up at QPR after Chelsea had traveled to Anfield and beaten Liverpool 2-1, things look rosy for Mourinho. They have already negotiated tough away trips to face Manchester City, Manchester United and Everton without defeat.

Both games against the Manchester sides ended in 1-1 draws and the Blues should have won them, but for losing concentration.

They have also beaten London rivals Arsenal at home, and to date remain unbeaten in all competitions. 

Progress from their Champions League group seems assured, despite their slip-up against Maribor, which ended in a 1-1 draw in Slovenia. That game highlights the biggest problem for Chelsea now - themselves.

The squad Mourinho has put together is missing nothing. For a long while, the biggest problem Chelsea had was missing a striker. But now with battle axe-wielding lunatic Diego Costa leading the line they have the hitman they need.

Cesc Fabregas in midfield gives them the guile they need in the heart of the team to unlock sides sitting back against Chelsea, while the combination of high technical ability and work-rate in Eden Hazard, Oscar and Willian makes the midfield a formidable proposition.

And that's before you get to Nemanja Matic, a man-mountain who gives Chelsea the weight and force they need in midfield without sacrificing detail.

The balance isn't always quite right; Fabregas didn't help the Serbian out enough against Liverpool, but that is a problem for Mourinho to gently fine tune. 

He has other options in his squad, with John Obi Mikel and Ramires offering vastly different midfield methods. 

The defence is strong too, with Gary Cahill and the evergreen John Terry an imposing central partnership, Cesar Azpilicueta, Branislav Ivanovic and Filipe Luis as good a collection of full-backs as you are likely to find in any team, and two of the best five goalkeepers in the world battling it out for the No 1 spot.

While Manchester City have a squad to rival Chelsea's they seem far less settled and hungry. Mourinho has the best team in the Premier League and it's not a question of if they will win it, but when. 

All that has prevented Chelsea from garnering more points to date are occasional slips in concentration. That tends to happen when you're not being truly challenged.

Against Manchester City they let in a late equaliser to substitute Frank Lampard, despite Manuel Pellegrini's side only having 10 men. It was a similar story against Manchester United, although this time it was Chelsea down to 10 when Robin van Persie blasted home from close range.

Pep could not make his players play out of their skins each and every week, because they didn't have to. But that hurt Bayern when they came up against Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final.

The problem is the same for Mourinho; he needs his men to stay in a rich vein of form against lesser opponents, and not just to scrape a win by a single goal, so they don't have to go through the gears to get up to speed when tricker teams come calling later in the season. 

He is an excellent motivator and if there is any man cut out for the job it's Mourinho. 

Competition is healthy, it keeps teams on their toes. The challenge for Chelsea is to stay at their best when they are so clearly more advanced than their domestic rivals.