Mourinho looking forward to next season's challenge as title celebrations wind down

It feels like we've been celebrating our Premier League title for some time now.  It feels almost anticlimactic in a way, even as we look forward to Sunday's trophy presentation and Monday's victory parade through the streets of SW6.

While the players are surely enjoying this above most anything else, the manager has already started thinking about next season.  He already talked about wanting to have more cake, and now he's even dispensed with the metaphors.

"The most important thing I learned was last season, when I realised that after being away from England for a few years - five, three in Madrid, two at Inter - was to realise it's more dangerous to be a contender. It's more dangerous to be a title-contender manager because you start the season and you don't know what is waiting for you."

"You can be champions, you can qualify for the Champions League, you can even be out of Champions League, out of the top four, because at this moment in England there's five, six teams from the top who are really strong."

-Jose Mourinho; source: Mail

So domestically, we're expecting another close contest (at least initially, right Man City?) with 5-6 contenders.  What about in Europe?

"It's a Champions League with new groups. A Champions League that will have completely different combinations in the last 16. A Champions League with Real Madrid as a second seed, Man City, Man United and Arsenal as second seeds. Who are they going to cross with in the group phase?"

"Lots of big teams will probably finish second in the group stage. In my opinion the seeding is completely fair. Obviously I would prefer Real Madrid and all the big guys in my seeding pot, but it's fair. The first seed is for champions. It's the nature of the competition."

-Jose Mourinho; source: Chelsea FC

While I'm personally not a huge fan of the new seeding system for the Champions League group stages, our expectations as far as the competition remain unchanged.  And I'm sure Mourinho would love to win it again, too, this time with Chelsea at least.

Meanwhile, in more immediate matters, Mourinho also reassures that we'll be taking the Sunderland game a bit more seriously than last weekend's visit to The Hawthorns.

"The motivation is to be the champions for us, and for them it's not to be relegated. We are already celebrating our title. They are already celebrating these last fantastic weeks they have had with good results. We are over - probably them too - with celebrations."

"Now there is a last match. Obviously we want to win. I also believe they want to win. That's normal."

-Jose Mourinho; source: Mail

Let's go!