We can do it without Jose Mourinho, insists Joe Cole

Chelsea haven't won the Premier League title since the Special One was sacked in September 2007 and it is weighing heavily on the players' minds.

The only silverware that has been added to the cabinet in the meantime was the FA Cup last year but it is a sorry return for a club with Chelsea's level of ambition and expectations.

Most of the current squad played under Mourinho, although only eight have a winners' medal from the last championship they won under him four years ago.

Avram Grant, Luiz Felipe Scolari and Guus Hiddink have all tried and failed to emulate the 47-year-old and current coach Carlo Ancelotti now has the best opportunity to end Chelsea's drought.

The Blues have led from the front for the majority of the campaign and yet every time they've had the chance to establish the kind of decisive lead established in the successful Mourinho years, they have cracked under the pressure.

Instead of taking on Stoke on Sunday with a four-point cushion over Manchester United, Ancelotti's men have a fragile one-point advantage due to the woeful display in the 2-1 defeat to Tottenham last week.

Joe Cole, who won the title with Chelsea in 2005 and 2006, explains the players are not only wrestling with the challenge of finishing above United but the knowledge they have still to win the championship without Mourinho.

He said: "The fact we haven't won the title since Mourinho is probably hanging over us. We have only won one cup since then and been within the width of a post of winning the Champions League.

"We're hoping it's going to happen this season. We have put ourselves in a great position. Jose is a great manager but he is not the be all and end all for a football club — no one is. It's about the dynamics and how the club works.

"The most frustrating thing for us really is that we should be six-seven points clear. It's great for the neutral I suppose, but every game is a cup final, every match has been one for the last two months."

With just three games to go, this year's Premier League is still very much in the balance but the England international believes it's more important Chelsea build a dynasty like Manchester United have done over the past 20 years.

He added: "It is the best League in Europe. You can't win it every year but we need to win it consistently. You can't go four years without winning it like we have done."

Joe Cole has been helping Stamford the Lion prepare for the London Marathon and has raised over £10,000 for Chelsea FC's official charity partner, Capital FM 98.5 FM's Help A London Child. To sponsor him, visit www.justgiving.com/runstamfordrun