Mourinho not surprised by Fergie

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho watched his side beat Tottenham 1-0 and then insisted he was not surprised by Sir Alex Ferguson's criticism about Spurs being forced to play the Blues just 39 hours after their UEFA Cup defeat in Seville.

Chelsea refused to allow Spurs to move the fixture back to Sunday because of travel plans ahead of their Champions League return leg in Valencia on Tuesday night.

Mourinho said: "I was not surprised he complained about this fixture because he is intelligent and maybe he thinks the other people are stupid."

He added: "Being intelligent is a great quality. Intelligent people are one step ahead of other people. But when you think other people are stupid it is not such a good quality.

"He is an intelligent man, a successful man with a great career. You cannot be a great manager if you are not intelligent. The time I spend with him I always enjoy so much because he is intelligent.

"I accept what he said as an intelligent quote from an intelligent person, forgetting other people are not stupid and only can laugh about it."

But in his assessment of their well-deserved victory over Martin Jol's side, he could not resist having another dig at Ferguson.

Mourinho said: "We did our job. This is the only time we have had the chance to play before United and that is because we control the fixtures.

"Imagine if we didn't control them? But because we control the fixtures we had the incredible chance to close the gap. We didn't fail, we did our job.

"Chelsea were by far the best team in the first half and should have scored goals."