Mourinho calls truce with rival managers

The Chelsea manager was promoting peace and love at the Beverly Hills Hotel as he attempted to convince himself that the touchline tantrums, the barbed comments and his notorious mood swings are a thing of the past.

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"If people like you, they like you," he explained. "If they don't, they don't, but you have to adapt to reality and English football has had an impact on me and my way of life. That is why this season I will be more mellow. More m-e-l-l-o-w."

Yes, he really means mellow. Not to be confused with melodramatic. Relations with owner Roman Abramovich have improved since their midsummer powwow and Chelsea's backroom staff are making the most of a manager who is at one with the world.

"People use my personality to create something that is not true," he claimed. "If I am emotional or if I react to something that is not fair or normal, that is not correct. So I won't feed off it any more.

"I have many years in front of me. I don't have to be in a hurry. I can be calm, cool and relaxed. I don't hug Arsene Wenger because he is not a close friend, but he can say what he wants about us.

"He can complain about a lot of things, as he did in the past, but I'm not ready to react. I just want to do my work and concentrate on that.

"I look at our opponents because I need to know the way they play, but I'm not interested in what they say.

"My relationships with other people will not change. My bottle of wine with Ferguson will still be a bottle of wine, my handshake with Wenger will still be a handshake. It's no problem."

With sun on their backs and three successive victories during a gruelling pre-season programme, Chelsea and Mourinho have every right to be chipper ahead of the Premiership season.

This is the first time Mourinho has entered a fourth season with the same club and, although he had the option to leave this summer, his decision to stay was based on ambition.

He added: "I remember my first meeting with Peter Kenyon, Eugene Tenenbaum and Roman. I was moving from Porto to Chelsea and we were talking about targets in 2015 and 2016 — and we are going in that direction.

"I have done a good job at Chelsea for three years. Things between me and the club are very good. We understand each other and we have a project. The Premiership is the best place to work and I am happy to be part of Chelsea's future. I didn't want to move."

Despite Mourinho's contentment, there have been squad changes and the team will take time to adapt to a new style.

Although Chelsea are unlikely to match Manchester United in terms of entertainment, Mourinho will press ahead with plans to play with two wingers when the Premiership starts on August 11.

Arjen Robben, Florent Malouda, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joe Cole will compete for two places in a team who won two Premiership titles by suffocating the opposition.

Mourinho added: "I don't think there will be a difference in how many points we get because, over the past three years, Chelsea were the team with more points, more victories and more clean sheets. But it's good for the club that we'll play a different way.

"We have to play with wingers and 4-3-3 is the system the players feel most comfortable with, but 4-4-2 with wingers is something we are working on. I want to get better results and be more entertaining. We have the players available again and we can go for it."

The decision to play 4-3-3 leaves Andriy Shevchenko battling for his place. The Ukrainian looked sharp against LA Galaxy on Saturday, but his chances of displacing Didier Drogba are virtually nil.

Mourinho said: "If we play 4-3-3, it leaves Sheva in a fight with Drogba and Claudio Pizarro, that's obvious. If we play 4-4-2, then Sheva, Pizarro and Drogba will fight for two positions.

"But I don't want to speak about individuals at this moment. Some players get their form after two days, others take longer."

The manager is already at the top of his game.