José Mourinho’s right-hand man insisted yesterday that the Chelsea manager has not changed, despite his claims to have mellowed during the summer, a view that John Obi Mikel can verify to his cost.

The Nigeria midfield player is fighting for his place in the team for tomorrow’s FA Community Shield match with Manchester United after angering Mourinho with his performances during pre-season and being subject to a dressing-down after last week’s friendly win over Brondby.

Mourinho fell out with Mikel last season because of his habitual lateness and poor attitude off the pitch, banishing him to the reserves instead of taking him with the squad for a Champions League group match in Barcelona, but he is more concerned with his performances on the field of play. After knuckling down to displace Claude Makelele towards the end of last season, the 20-year-old had been earmarked to fill the holding midfield role for this campaign, but he has not delivered the goods in pre-season.

Mourinho was critical of his performance in the 2-0 defeat by Rangers last Saturday and was so exasperated in Copenhagen that he withdrew him after half an hour. It is understood that Mourinho had harsh words for Mikel afterwards, particularly regarding his positional sense and discipline, although an injury to Michael Essien may present him with another opportunity against United. The Ghana midfield player trained yesterday after a back injury but is unlikely to be risked at Wembley, particularly because Frank Lampard is determined to play despite suffering from a broken toe.

Mourinho’s treatment of Mikel supports the contention of Steve Clarke, his assistant, who predicted yesterday that managers would not be confronting a changed man this season. “José’s still as determined as ever to win,” Clarke said. “You can’t change your character like that, your character is your character. I’m a dour Scotsman, if you like, and that’s the way it is. You can’t change it. You can’t expect me to come on cracking jokes — that’s not my personality, that’s not my style.

“He’s always been mellow with me. There’s the José Mourinho the coach and the friend who works around the football club day in, day out and there’s José Mourinho the professional. It’s different.”

With Mourinho’s hunger undiminished and the Portuguese happy with the squad he has assembled for his fourth season at the club, Clarke is confident that Chelsea will mount a strong challenge for trophies. “Losing the title last season hurt everybody,” he said. “We’ve got a squad full of winners who all want to be successful and all want to win the top prizes. Any other club would have been happy with two trophies out of four, but we were disappointed. We got to finish on a high with the FA Cup, but ultimately when you look at the season we let two major prizes slip away.

“We competed for every trophy last season. There was only one match we missed that mattered — the Champions League final. Every other match was a competitive match. Circumstances went against us as we lost the Champions League semi-final on penalties and couldn’t quite close the gap in the Premiership, but you can’t say it was a bad season. We believe we can win the Premiership and the Champions League. It’s difficult but possible.”

Clarke revealed that only Wayne Bridge and Michael Ballack have been ruled out of tomorrow’s match, with Chelsea eager to exert pressure on the champions before the Premier League season has started. “United won the league last season so have to defend the trophy,” he said. “We managed to do it two years in a row but couldn’t last year. We’re the team chasing them and we’ll enjoy the chase.”