Mourinho writes off Arsenal

Jose Mourinho believes that Arsenal are going to struggle this season.

Defeats to Middlesbrough and Chelsea have left Arsenal reeling, and the likes of defender Ashley Cole publicly questioning the side's capacity for success.

Manager Arsene Wenger is well aware that The Gunners were unbeaten two years ago when they lifted the title and current holders Chelsea lost just once - and so is Mourinho.

"If we had lost two matches I would probably be thinking we cannot lose any more," said the Portuguese tactician.

"Maybe the big teams will lose matches in a row, you never know. But if you look at the last two seasons, Arsenal were champions with no defeats. And we were champions with one defeat.

"The tendency is for the big teams not to lose many matches. Maybe Arsenal defender Ashley Cole is right when he says you must suffer no more than four defeats in a season. He's probably correct.

""We are top. Only Charlton can have the same points as us. But of all the other teams competing to be champions, everybody else has lost points.

"Man U lost two, Liverpool four, Arsenal six. So we can certainly say we have an advantage on them.

"We just have to win our games. This one is another game - more difficult because it is away."

Chelsea face Charlton Athletic, who have maximum points from their season to date, but Mourinho could not resist the opportunity to try to undermine the season's surprise packages.

"At the end of the season, you will see a difference between their power and our power," asserted Mourinho. "There will be 20, maybe 30 points between us.

"Right now, they could beat us. Why not? Anyone can beat anyone in The Premiership and, yes, Charlton could beat Chelsea.

"But at the end of the season, Chelsea will be one of the top teams in The Premiership and Charlton will be happy to be in the Uefa Cup. That will be good for them."

Mourinho also looked at the impact of The Addicks' Darren Bent who has been superb since arriving from Ipswich Town.

"Bent is a good player. I think he has shown he is a player with Premiership quality," added Mourinho.

"But I don't think a team like Chelsea, Man U or Arsenal could take a player like that and throw him in at Champions League level.

"For these medium level teams, it is an intelligent thing to sign that kind of player.

"I don't think he will score goals every week. I certainly don't think he will score 40 goals.

"But if he scores 15 times, he will have had a good season."