Mourinho refuses to sympathise with Moyes

Mourinho is targeting his 100th Premier League victory when the ailing champions – who were also the victims of his first win in that sequence in 2004 – visit Stamford Bridge tomorrow.

While Chelsea are in the midst of what appears to be a three-way title race involving Arsenal and Manchester City, United are 11 points adrift of the summit.

Floundering in seventh place, they may even fail to qualify for next season's Champions League, with a five-point gap having opened up to fourth spot.

Moyes signed a six-year contract when he replaced Alex Ferguson in the summer and Mourinho insists he will be given that time to build his own Old Trafford dynasty.

"I don't think there is a reason to have sympathy for David Moyes because he has a fantastic job," Mourinho said. "He's very, very stable.

"The club gave him incredible trust when they chose him to be the next Manchester United manager after Sir Alex.

"It's a club with a fantastic culture. They believe in stability and the power of the manager. They believe in supporting the manager.

"Because they had a couple of bad results and they are not top of the league or as close to Manchester United as normal, (these) are not reasons for David to be in trouble.

"I think David is very stable and will have the time of his contract to build a team to achieve success and be there for many years.

"I don't think he's in trouble to have sympathy with, so no problems."

BATTLES

Meanwhile, Moyes believes Mourinho could be remembered as the finest manager of his generation.

Moyes has never beaten Mourinho in nine head-to-head battles and the pair will be in opposing dug-outs again tomorrow when United head to Stamford Bridge for an eagerly-awaited encounter with the Blues.

Intriguingly, both men were linked with the manager's job at the other's club at some point in their careers and it is widely assumed Mourinho was on United's hit-list, only for the club's hierarchy to pass over the Portuguese in favour of Moyes when Alex Ferguson opted to stand down last year.

The wisdom of that decision cannot be assessed properly until much further on.

However, with Champions League triumphs from his time at Porto and Inter Milan and the impressive record of winning championships in four European leagues, Mourinho has established a reputation that goes far beyond his present employment.

And Moyes, as he made clear in the summer when he shot down suggestions the pair were at loggerheads, has nothing but respect for Mourinho's work.

"I have no problems at all with Jose," said Moyes. "I have only got admiration for Jose. Jose could well go on to be the best of his generation because he has been so successful in a lot of the jobs he has been in."