Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho turned his ire on Premier Leaque officials by slamming a "fake" table after his side returned to the summit with a 3-0 win at home to Stoke on Saturday.

Victory, secured by goals from Mohamed Salah, Frank Lampard and Willian, saw Chelsea leapfrog Liverpool into first place by a point.

It also left the London club two points in front of Manchester City but, significantly, Manuel Pellegrini's third-placed side will have two games in hand over Chelsea and Liverpool come the end of this weekend.

And that doesn't sit well with Mourinho, who believes it is wrong that the clubs vying for the title won't have played the same number of games until the final week of the season.

"The situation is the same. The table is again fake," Mourinho said. "The table is again with lots of matches in hand.

"You look to the top part of the table and some teams have more matches than others.

"In the top of the league we cannot say we need 'X' points to be champions.

"This, in the best league in the world, I don't think is the best image we are giving and it's not the best situation," the Portuguese said.

"To play matches in hand in the last week of the season, I don't think is adapted to this top football country."

- Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 04/07/2014 page11)