Tired Chelsea still awake to challenge

Chelsea - 3 Fulham - 1: Jose Mourinho has held efficiency in higher esteem than aesthetics this season - just look at that grey overcoat - but he will be pleased by the symmetry this win provided.

If Arsenal falter against Tottenham tonight, this match will prove to have been the title clincher. Chelsea are champions in all but name. Irrespective of Arsenal's result tonight, a victory at Bolton next Saturday will make that status official, particularly as the putative threat of a points deduction has receded amid Premier League fears that any such sanction for Mourinho's meeting with Arsenal's Ashley Cole would be open to a legal challenge.

This match, which made an April title win possible, was a tribute to the teamwork and tenacity that has typified Chelsea's season.

Mourinho bemoaned the timing of this fixture, coming as it did a little less than 63 hours after his side's exertions against the deposed champions, and his complaints that his players were jaded were justified. There were heavy limbs, the score perhaps flattering Chelsea. Fulham's failure to take at least a draw was due in part to their wasteful finishing but mostly to the depth of emotional resources the hosts displayed.

To add to those mental resources Chelsea are flexing even greater financial muscle. The club is planning "a major announcement" today at a time when three companies are believed to be vying for the club's shirt sponsorship and willing to pay what is understood to be a Premiership record of £9million-plus a year, a sum equal to Mourinho's reputed contract demands.

Here Damien Duff emerged from half-time in the left-back position vacated by Robert Huth and the reference of the chief executive Peter Kenyon to the "real pain and grief in reducing the squad size" was again felt here. Kenyon uses that as evidence that, despite the club's £88 million pre-tax losses last year, Chelsea have not bought their title.

Yet Mourinho believes the employment of a smaller squad, a strategy he employed to great success with Porto, has brought with it added obstacles to England. "I don't have a left-back - no Wayne Bridge, no Paulo Ferreira, no William Gallas, that's a problem," he said.

"In Portugal it is easy to have success in the league and you can control your destiny much more easily. You cannot have such a big rotation [ here], the way you can in Portugal."

Fulham deserve credit for their performance and received it from Mourinho, who referred to Chris Coleman as "a very good manager". Certainly the Welshman made it hard for Chelsea, using a 4-4-2 formation with attacking wingers and full-backs to exploit his hosts' fatigue.

Ultimately mistakes by his players cost Coleman. Moritz Volz gave away the ball when a simple clearance was called for, allowing Joe Cole to take the lead, and the German was embarrassed by the returning Arjen Robben when he set up Frank Lampard for Chelsea's second. A delicious through ball from Luis Boa Morte flummoxed Ricardo Carvalho for Collins John's equaliser but Tiago emulated it in putting Gudjohnsen clear for Chelsea's third, three minutes from time.