Birthday boy Jose Mourinho is eagerly anticipating the challenge handed to Chelsea in The FA Cup, after they were drawn out to play Manchester City in the Fifth Round.
The Blues had just won their Fourth Round tie against Stoke City courtesy of Oscar’s wonderful free-kick at Stamford Bridge when the draw was made across London at Wembley.
And when Chelsea were paired with England’s form team at the Etihad Stadium, Mourinho welcomed the challenge that has been laid down for his side, with a Premier League trip to play Manuel Pellegrini’s team also scheduled for early February.
Chelsea 1-0 Stoke City
The FA Cup with Budweiser
Fourth Round Proper
3.30pm, Sunday 26 February
Stamford Bridge
Winners receive £90000
Live on ITV
“It’s good,” reflected Mourinho, who said his 51st birthday celebrations would involve nothing more than a post-match meal with family and friends.
“Our aim for the season is to improve and the best way to improve is through difficult things.
“Playing against the best team, twice in 15 days, at the stadium where they smash every team and a stadium where they score four or five goals every game, even against the big teams like Arsenal and Tottenham - it’s a good thing for us.
“If we lose, we lose against the best and if we don’t lose, it’s fantastic so it’s a good draw.
“We are ready to go there and enjoy, with a good attitude and nothing to lose.
“They have everything to lose, they are the team that was made to win and they have to feel now the same thing that I was feeling here in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
“They are the best team by far and if they don’t win, it’s because they did something wrong.”
The Portuguese was certainly happy with his team’s display on Sunday, which he felt deserved a more comfortable scoreline than the single goal victory they eventually had.
Oscar celebrates Chelsea's winner against Stoke.
It was a marvellous goal from Oscar to win the tie but after creating numerous chances from their general play, the irony that victory was sealed with a free-kick wasn’t lost on Mourinho.
“We played a very good game today,” he added.
“The score didn’t reflect the quality of our game and the dominance we had so it’s good for us.
“We played so well, but we win with a free-kick when we also created chances, missed chances and hit the post twice.
“We had something fantastic play and very good collective movements against a difficult team, so I think we played very well.
“The free-kick makes us happy because he [Oscar] trains hard and is a player who dedicates time after training sessions every day to work on specific things.
“So to score a beautiful goal was good for him and we hit the post twice and Begovic again showed how good he is.
“I think the boys played very well, but when it’s only 1-0, they [Stoke] were very direct and tried to put some pressure on us but we controlled the game since we went in front.”
