Mourinho tries to reduce players' frustration

Mourinho has already been forced to carpet his defender Ricardo Carvalho for speaking out about his exclusion from their opening game of the season at Wigan and Arjen Robben has also voiced his dismay with the coach's rotation policy.

But after recording six consecutive victories without conceding a goal, Chelsea sit six points clear at the top of the Premiership - clearly the sense of togetherness is back.

"It is crucial," he says. "Good players want to win championships and good teams win with this mentality. Of course, I have to work on it. I can't let players lose their confidence or commitment or lose their link to the group.

"I cannot leave a player 10, 12, 14 consecutive matches without playing. I have to rotate to make people happy. Of course, they all want to play and that's not easy - only 11 can do it. But we will be in four competitions at the same time and everybody plays."

Chelsea have already been labelled as "boring" this season, but any suggestion that they lack the motivation to retain their Premiership title is quickly rebuffed by Mourinho.

"Last season we wanted to succeed and win the Premiership. This season is no different. The players have experienced the frustration with two Champions' League semi-final defeats. They want to carry on so I don't see any lack of motivation.

"If you win, you want to win more times. But maybe it changes other people in a negative way. For example, my colleague Arsène Wenger was saying that because he won the FA Cup four times he doesn't care about the fifth, so it depends on people. We want to keep winning.

"What is success for Wigan and West Brom? To stay in the Premiership, they will fight for that. What is success for us? To win the Premiership and we will fight for that."

Meanwhile, the Dutch winger Robben says he relishing the prospect of fighting for his place. Robben scored the second goal in Chelsea's 2-0 win over Charlton at the weekend, but with Shaun Wright-Phillips waiting in the wings, Robben knows he cannot afford to let his game drop.

He said: "In every position there is strong competition with two people battling for one spot. Everyone knows if they don't perform they can be replaced. For me, that is not a problem. It can only make you a better player."