JOSE MOURINHO, the Chelsea manager, was in no mood for hanging around on the eve of his side's vital Champions League Group E tie with Steaua Bucharest.

Mourinho's mood imitated the stormy weather in the Romanian capital as the Portuguese shortened his pre-match media conference to stride out and oversee the final training session under the roof at the National Arena. He had declared himself the Happy One on his return to Stamford Bridge, and he has so far been jovial, accomodating and cordial at pre-match inquisitions.However, as Chelsea look to bounce back from their opening round loss at home to FC Basle, he showed the first signs of strain, taking exception to a question about absent forward Kevin de Bruyne. With Juan Mata to start in Bucharest after beginning the season as a peripheral figure, De Bruyne was informed he was not required and was left at home alongside his fellow Belgian Eden Hazard, who has an ankle injury.

"This is fantastic because nobody asks me about Mata," Mourinho said. "You are for three weeks speaking about Mata, and now you are speaking about Kevin de Bruyne. So you are not interested in the players that are playing? You are interested in the players that are not playing.

"He was not selected. It was my decision. Only 11 can play and 18 can be selected. I try to decide by what they do on the pitch when they play and what they do in training.

"He [De Bruyne] is not selected because I didn't like the match he played against Swindon and I didn't like the way he was training. But you have this tendency to only ask about the guys that are not selected.

"See you tomorrow," he signed off.

There might be more stormclouds to come. Fernando Torres, Mourinho's first-choice striker, faces a possible four-match ban for his altercation with Tottenham's Jan Vertonghen during Saturday's London derby, when it appeared Torres scratched the defender on the face. The Football Association is gathering evidence to determine whether to punish the striker based on video replays. Chelsea have accrued only 11 points from six league matches so far and sit four behind the leaders, Arsenal.

Arsene Wenger, though, believes it is "absolutely ridiculous" to talk about potential winners so early in the season, and instead urged his side to focus on their European home match against Napoli tonight.

"In our job the most important thing is to have a good balance between ambition and humility," he said. "Ambition because of course we want to win [the league], but humility as well because we know we have only played six games."

Of the Champions League, he added: "We are in a tough group. If you look at the teams Marseille, Dortmund and Napoli, they play at the top of their league in big football countries, so for us it is vital to continue our run and come out the group."