JOSE MOURINHO WILL blame referee Chris Foy if Chelsea narrowly miss out on the Premier League title this season.
The Chelsea manager believes the performance of the match official contributed to his side’s recent shock 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa.
Foy dismissed Ramires and Willian, the Chelsea midfielders, and sent Mourinho to the stands in the final moments of the game leading to an FA charge the manager insists he will fight.
Nevertheless, leaders Chelsea consolidated their position at the top of the table with last weekend’s emphatic 6-0 thrashing of Arsenal.
But their defeat at Villa Park ensured Manchester City will move top if they win both their games in hand while Liverpool are just one point behind Mourinho’s team in second place.
And with the final outcome likely to be determined by the odd point, the Portuguese boss believes the defeat at Villa could prove decisive.
“The other matches we lost because we didn’t play well, the opponents were better than us, we missed big chances,” he told reporters at Chelsea’s training ground in Cobham, south of London, on Friday.
“At Stoke, for example, we had chances to kill the game but we didn’t and lost. Newcastle played better than us in the second half. You find natural reasons for losing the match.
“Against Villa, it’s difficult. What happened in the defeat at Villa I never accept. I have a lot of experience, years and years of football, I learn a lot of things.
“One of the things I learn is that you can win, you can lose, and if you lose in the right way you have to move on and try not to lose again.
“The only thing I didn’t learn was to lose with that kind of referee performance. It wasn’t a mistake, it was a performance. I learned to control my emotions and to calm down in the moment, like I did, but I have not learned how to accept that kind of performance.”
- ‘Most difficult run-in’ -
Chelsea’s run-in appears far from daunting with the trip to Liverpool their most testing challenge.
But Mourinho maintains the pressure of competing on two fronts — none of their domestic title rivals remain in the Champions League while Chelsea face a two-leg quarter-final with Paris St Germain — works against his team.
“We have the most difficult run-in. Because we play Champions League and they don’t. We have to play matches with two and three days in between. We have to change our focus from the Premier League to the Champions League, and go back to the other competition.
“The team are playing well for a long, long time. Somebody was very successful in putting a hurdle in front of us, and we crashed the hurdle against Aston Villa and lost. But our run is magnificent.”
Ashley Cole and Samuel Eto’o will both miss the trip to strruggling Crystal Palace this weekend while Ramires is again suspended.
Mourinho, meanwhile, insists he has no concerns that Eden Hazard and Oscar could be unsettled ahead of the meeting with PSG following reports linking the French club with the Chelsea pair.
“It’s not irritating. No problem. If there is FFP (Financial Fair Play, European football governing body UEFAs plan to make sure clubs don’t spend more than their ‘natural resources’ allow), they don’t have money to buy them.
“If there is no FFP, and it’s £300 million ($500m, 363m euros) for both, Chelsea have to think about it.”
I think bringing Sexton before the NZ game was a bad idea. Im all for him helping the 10’s develop for international games but it’s easy to imagine that in addition to wanting revenge for the WC there was a subconscious need to avenge Johnny, which would’ve put undue pressure on everyone—just like how the QF was potentially Sexton’s last ever game was probably a massive distraction. Now I’m just an armchair pundit so waffling out of my thoin but the team looked not only physically rusty but mentally defeated. Anyway, wouldn’t be surprised if the pumas beat us. I think 25 will be the year for blooding new players with Andy away
@J M: Why is it always Sextons fault ? His selection hindered the development of younger outhalves. This was the same year he was awarded World Player. So Crowley is having second album woes, and Frawley is not the golden child because of Sexton. Jeese
@Rugbyanbeer: I just think the timing could’ve been better, maybe next year’s 6N. Or perhaps if we had’ve been playing nz last.
I’d love Sexton to get into coaching if that’s what he wanted
@J M: To pin the blame on Sexton for the reasons you’ve outlined is complete and utter nonsense quite frankly.
Watching both Argentina and Australia last weekend, the Irish team will need to box clever. They can run the ball back from anywhere on the pitch – so poor kicking and falling off tackles (an ongoing problem for this group), will be devastating. I presume that Beirne will go back into second row, Ryan to the bench and an alternative 6 promoted. That player needs to have pace and a solid tackling game.
It seems that Aki is going to be dropped (why?) in favour of Henshaw. Can’t afford to lose this one, given that World Cup draw rankings are at stake.
@PatN: Can only see Osborne replacing Aki, with Aki on the bench or vice versa. Aki is still very strong and a key contributor to this team. Last week’s bench needs to be refreshed with younger talent.