(Chelsea Vs Man City) We played Fantastic Game against a Fantastic Team-Say Jose Mourinho

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho played down his side’s Premier League title chances, despite their impressive 1-0 win at Manchester City on Monday night.

Branislav Ivanovic was the hero for Chelsea with a brilliant strike as they ended City’s perfect record at the Etihad Stadium with a superb display.

The victory moved Mourinho’s men level on points with City and two adrift of leaders Arsenal, but the Portuguese insists he is not planning on winning the Premier League this term and is building for next season.

“I think we played fantastic, against a fantastic team. To play the way we did, I think is amazing for the boys in this process of building the team and prepare the team to be one of the favourites next season,” Mourinho told Sky Sports.

“I think this is a very important step – the best team in the Premier League, we beat them twice (home and away), and especially today we were fantastic.

“They had a couple of chances to score but we had the better chances to kill the game and the players played with fantastic spirit – the way I was trying to explain.

“You never know how things go but when they had the ball, we were all very humble and all very ready to work a lot defensively.

“When we had the ball, we were trying to play and we played very well.”

Mourinho insisted, despite the manner of his side’s victory, they are not favourites for the title and claims he is only thinking about the long-term development of his players for next season.

“We are there, but we are not favourites” added Mourinho.

“I just think it is very important because it is not good for the evolution of the team if you are playing in the Premier League 10, 15 points behind the leaders.

“It is not good for the evolution of the team if you are playing Europa League. We need big things… we need these kind of matches with the pressure we felt today and this for the team is very important.”

Mourinho refused to pick out individuals, admitting it was a real team performance that enabled Chelsea to come away with all three points.