With places in the knockout stage of the Champions League and the last four of the League Cup already assured, Chelsea entertain Newcastle on Saturday with a five-point lead at the top of the Premiership.

Things could hardly be any better. But Mourinho appears to thrive on constantly reminding himself that catastrophe is lurking just around the corner, a fact illustrated by an anecdote he chose to recount this week about how his father, also a football manager, had lost his job on Christmas Day.

"The results had not been good, he lost a game on December 22 or 23 and on Christmas Day, the telephone rang and he was sacked in the middle of our lunch.

"So I know all about the ups and downs of football. I know that one day the results will not be good."

Having won every trophy available to him with FC Porto, Mourinho has done a good job of defying that rule to date with Chelsea.

Newcastle boss Graeme Souness does not disguise his admiration for the strength of the unit that the Portuguese coach has forged at Stamford Bridge, but insists his side will not be overawed by their trip to London.

"We have been playing well in the last few games and we have have not got anywhere near as many points as we should have," Souness said.

"We are playing a team on top of their game -- it is like going into the lions' den -- but we will not be going there with any fear.

"We played them in the Carling (League) Cup recently and on another night we could have won that game."

Newcastle travel south without injured skipper Alan Shearer or England midfielder Nicky Butt, who is out until the New Year with tendonitis in his hamstring.

Shearer's absence will however allow Patrick Kluivert and Craig Bellamy another opportunity to develop what looks like a promising 'little and large' striking combination.

Bellamy has been forced to play on the right of midfield for much of the season. But he has capitalised on Shearer's absence with three goals in his last three appearances, the latest a superbly taken strike from a Kluivert pass in the draw with Everton on Sunday.

"When I was out injured it hurt me that people said I didn't score enough goals," Bellamy admitted. "When I came back that was one part of my game I wanted to work on, scoring more goals, and I think I've been doing that."

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson paid Mourinho a compliment this week by admitting that it was Chelsea rather than Arsenal that he saw as the biggest threat to his side's chances of reclaiming the Premiership title.

As Chelsea's advantage over United currently stands at nine points, Ferguson could justifiably claim he was merely stating the obvious rather than indulging himself with another little dig at Arsenal.

Whatever the truth, Ferguson is hoping Chelsea's lead will have been whittled down to something more manageable by the time his side have completed what looks like a comfortable run of matches between now and the end of the year.

The midweek League Cup win over Arsenal may have been the work of a mixture of reserves and promising youngsters but it was nevertheless United's sixth win in a row and Southampton, visitors to Old Trafford on Saturday, look ill-equipped to stop the run.

Arsenal in contrast are still struggling to get their season back on track after finally relinquishing a 49-match unbeaten league record at Old Trafford last month.

No matter how irrelevant the competition is judged to be, Wednesday night's League Cup defeat will not have helped and the strain was reflected in Arsene Wenger's ungracious moan about United's boring tactics.

"In England there is a trend where teams start to play with one up front and five across the midfield," he complained. "It looks efficient but it will be boring for the spectators."

What Wenger did not acknowledge was that a couple of months ago his side's confidence was such that even the finest Italian-built defensive apparatus would have little chance of containing Thierry Henry and co.

Now, as West Brom demonstrated a fortnight ago, even the Premiership's most modest squads arrive at Highbury confident of frustrating their more talented hosts.

Birmingham, the guests on Saturday, will be no exception.

FIXTURES
(1500 GMT unless stated)
Saturday: Arsenal v Birmingham, Aston Villa v Liverpool, Blackburn v Tottenham (1715 GMT), Chelsea v Newcastle (1245 GMT), Everton v Bolton, Manchester Utd v Southampton, Norwich v Fulham, Portsmouth v West Brom
Sunday: Crystal Palace v Charlton (1605 GMT)
Monday: Middlesbrough v Manchester City (2000 GMT)