Mourinho Happy to Be Six Points Behind United

Having announced before kick-off that John Terry and Petr Cech would soon be returning from injury, Jose Mourinho was forced to endure more misery on the pitch as Aston Villa held his side to a third successive draw. The champions' defence of their Premiership title was further undermined by an injury to the defender Khalid Boulahrouz. Mourinho, however, claimed afterwards that he was "happy" with the result and the six-point deficit at the top but there will be a much greater sense of satisfaction at Old Trafford.

"I think Man United didn't take advantage of our bad moment," said the Chelsea manager, alluding not only to the two points United dropped at Newcastle on Monday but also their 1-0 defeat at West Ham in early December. "When they drew against Newcastle it was good for us because we knew the maximum [the lead could go to] was seven points. We got them with problems in the previous two seasons and we killed them in Christmas.

"We arrived in this period with a 12 or 13 points [lead in the past] and they couldn't [do it]. They lost five points recently against West Ham and Newcastle and the gap could be bigger so we look forward to the second part of the season and unless something negative happens I have John [Terry] immediately for the next Premiership game. Unless something negative happens I have [Arjen] Robben and Petr Cech not for Wigan but for the next one [Liverpool]."

With some justification Mourinho claimed Chelsea ought to have won this game. Didier Drogba volleyed over in the seventh minute before heading over the bar in injury-time. A minute earlier Frank Lampard had scooped a volley from inside the six-yard box off target. Mourinho suggested that the need to protect a fragile defence, which kept its first clean sheet in five matches, had curtailed Chelsea's attacking threat. It was their first blank in the league this season.

"To hide the problems we had in the back the team loses a bit of power in attack," said the manager. "In spite of that we produced enough to score a goal. We had chances in the first half and two good chances in the end of the game so we did enough to win. It was more important to play as a team and to have again that feeling of 11 players fighting together for a result than to win."

He revealed that Boulahrouz will be out for between four to six weeks with knee ligament damage. He will also be without Ricardo Carvalho and Drogba for the first leg of next week's Carling Cup semi-final against Wycombe after both picked up their fifth yellow cards of the season. His squad increasingly stretched, Mourinho said he would like to enter the transfer market but would not be held to ransom and he has told the club's hierarchy that players should not depart cheaply.

"I would like to go the market but I have told my top people that other people should look at us as a normal club. For example when I have people that want my players, but they want my players on loan, or on sale, [the answer] is no. And when other people want normal players for the price of a Diego Maradona in the 80s [the answer] is no. I am not speaking about Micah Richards because we didn't make an offer for Micah or another player."