Jose Mourinho is thinking only of Maribor – and not Manchester United – as Chelsea embark on an important week.

The Premier League leaders face Slovenian opposition for the first time in Tuesday night’s Champions League Group G clash at Stamford Bridge.

And on Sunday the Blues visit Old Trafford, where Mourinho’s one-time mentor Louis van Gaal is now in charge.

Mourinho is not looking beyond Maribor, who he has no intention of taking lightly.

“I don’t have Man United in mind. I have Maribor in mind,” Mourinho said.

“I don’t rest players. We must play with what we have, with the best we have.

“We are not going to concede any favour by resting people or changing the team, no way.”

Maribor have drawn with Sporting Lisbon and Schalke in their opening two matches – Chelsea won in Portugal last time out, having opened with a home draw against the Germans – and Mourinho is not underestimating a team which reached the group stages at Celtic’s expense.

He said: “We worked studying them and I’m happy because my players now have the feeling that they are a difficult opponent.”

The major selection question is whether Didier Drogba or Loic Remy will start up front in the ongoing absence of Diego Costa (hamstring).

Mourinho recently spoke of his team being built with Costa as the attacking focal point and refused to discuss adjustments with a different striker in place.

“You speak about Diego, I don’t speak about Diego,” Mourinho said.

“I say to my players: ‘I don’t want to speak about injured players’.

“When somebody is injured I always look at it as an opportunity for another player. When he’s not here, he’s not here.”

Mourinho is furious at Spain boss Vicente del Bosque after believing Costa’s hamstring problem was exacerbated on international duty.

Instead of resting, the £32million signing from Atletico Madrid played almost every minute of the Euro 2016 qualifying matches against Slovakia and Luxembourg this month and Mourinho does not know if his top-scorer will be fit for Sunday’s match at United.

“It’s the same problem that he’s having, but now an injury, not an ‘almost injury’,” Mourinho said.

“Let’s see what happens for next weekend (at Old Trafford), but next weekend is not important. Important is (Maribor) and he cannot play.”

Nigeria midfielder John Obi Mikel (foot) is again absent, while Brazil midfielder Ramires (groin) and World Cup winning Germany forward Andre Schurrle (illness) are also out despite training on Monday.

It is the situation regarding Costa which appears to be frustrating Mourinho most.

“It hurts,” added Mourinho, who has not spoken to Del Bosque about Costa.

“You are not happy when you give players in good conditions and you receive the players in bad conditions.

“I had managers with a very open communication, some others they simply don’t care.

“Year after year after year, I don’t have one single SMS (text message) or one single phone call.

“I don’t say that communication is compulsory for the players to be back in good conditions. I’m not saying that.

“For example, I didn’t speak with (Brazil boss) Dunga and Oscar, Filipe (Luis) and Willian came back in perfect conditions.”

Source Foxsports

Louis van Gaal insists Manchester United can still close the gap to Chelsea at the top of the Barclays Premier League.

United drew 2-2 at West Brom on Monday to drop more points as they try to catch Jose Mourinho’s leaders, who they host on Sunday.

Daley Blind scored an 87th minute equaliser after Saido Berahino’s sixth league goal of the season almost wrapped up victory for Albion.

Marouane Fellaini scored his first United goal to make it 1-1 but the draw left United 10 points behind Chelsea yet Van Gaal believes they can catch them.

He said: “That’s possible but difficult to say because then I am arrogant. But I have done it a lot of times.

“It is two points lost. I think we were the better team and I am very disappointed by the result. We were two times behind but I don’t think West Bromwich Albion created too many chances.

“We gave the two goals away and we created four chances in the first half and seven in the second. We dominated the game.

“That’s what I want as a coach and as a manager but the manager doesn’t want a result like 2-2.

“I have said to my players I cannot be happy. I am happy about our play style but not the result.”

Fellaini could have left Albion red faced after a tweet from their official Twitter account which appeared to take a dig at the Belgium international.

“Fellaini has now taken his tracksuit off, fortunately he has a Man Utd strip on underneath,” they tweeted as he prepared to come on as a half-time substitute.

Albion insist it was taken out of context as it was meant to show relief he was not naked but it was still retweeted 16,000 times.

The Baggies were good value for the point though and had taken the lead through Stephane Sessegnon’s fine eighth-minute effort.

The result lifted them to 14th in the table but head coach Alan Irvine revealed his frustration.

“We’re all bitterly disappointed. We were so close to getting a great result against a top team and for us not to get three points feels really tough in this moment,” he said.

“The players were terrific all the way through, they worked really hard when we didn’t have the ball and passed the ball really well. We got two great goals and we’ve led twice and I felt quite comfortable on both occasions we had the lead.”

Berahino impressed again and Irvine believes he added weight to calls for senior international selection.

“He is in great form. He deserves what he is getting, his application as been really top class. He’s behaving like a top professional day after day,” he said.

“If he scores goals every week then he has a great chance (of a senior call) but Roy will decide when is the right time for him.”

Albion later wrote a further tweet to say they had meant no offence by their earlier reference to Fellaini.

“Sorry if a joke about a footballer not having a shirt on under his tracksuit top has caused such outrage. It was not intended as a slur” the tweet read.

According to Foxsports