MANCHESTER UNITED MANAGER Jose Mourinho surprisingly came to the defence of former club Chelsea and embattled coach Antonio Conte, calling criticism of them “unfair”.
Mourinho and Conte have not seen eye-to-eye for the majority of the latter’s time in England, with the pair engaging in a protracted and often unseemly war of words this season.
During their spat, Mourinho questioned Conte’s integrity for becoming embroiled in a match-fixing scandal – from which the Italian was later exonerated – and the Blues boss responded by calling his rival a “little man”.
But their relationship appeared to have mellowed during Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat to United on February 25, with the pair shaking hands.
That game saw United make a slow start and they did so again on Monday in the dramatic 3-2 win over Crystal Palace, with comparisons made between the two contests, but Mourinho insists the only common denominator is strong opposition.
“Honestly, I know what you are writing as a consequence of yesterday,” Mourinho told reporters at Selhurst Park, 24 hours after Conte’s side came under fire for their defensive approach in a 1-0 defeat at runaway Premier League leaders Manchester City.
“But Chelsea is a fantastic team and, I know it looks a bit strange because you know we had problems in the past, but it’s quite ridiculous that I have to say how unfair it is to speak the way people are speaking about the English champion.
“They are still the English champion. Chelsea was strong against us. They started very strong and created difficulty in that initial part of the game.
“And tonight [Monday] I think Roy [Hodgson, Palace manager] was strong. We were expecting [Jairo] Riedewald in defensive midfield and [Alexander] Sorloth out left, but he came with a 4-4-2, two aggressive strikers together, strong in the air then dropping back to defend.
“Roy was very good. I don’t even want to blame my players and say the start was not good.
“The start was not good because they [Palace] were good and matches like this [going behind early], it’s only possible if the two teams are good.”
Monday’s win gave Mourinho’s side a nine-point edge over fifth-placed Chelsea, with the Blues sitting just five points back of Spurs in the race for the top four.
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
Somewhere Phil Kearns is having an absolute meltdown about the unfairness of it all…
Great to see Jaguares win, hope they can follow up next week.
Argentina are 50-1 for the world cup! Insane odds given how well the Jaguares are going. Plus they always underperform in the Rugby Championship cos of the distances they have to travel. Given Ireland are 5-1, this seems pretty long for the Argies.
@Farzad Saadat: Pool C will see a big faller at the 1st. France, England and Argentina will be interesting. You’d think France could be the one to miss out but they’ve been ruthless with their squad selection, brought in O’Gara and you only have to look at 2011 when they had no chance and made the final. England could find themselves in a similar fate to 2015, after a great start under Jones they had an awful run of loses. Argentina always peak at world cup time. Exciting!
@RabidHorizon: Did they bring in O’Gara in the end? I thought that was all just rumours in the end
@Eddie Hekenui: No they didn’t in the end
@Ciaran Twomey: Cheers. Thought I might’ve missed the news he’d taken a role with them.
@Farzad Saadat: Madness considering they have knocked us out of 3 of the last 5 RWCs.
@RabidHorizon: they didn’t bring in O’Gara
@RabidHorizon: France brought in much better coaches than O’Gara, they should get a real boost – Labit and Galthié – they picked the right squad, too. I think England could be the team to miss out..
Brumbies should never have made it to a semi. Awful team but get lucky because of how weak their conference is.
@#JUSTICE4NOEL:
Aussie Rugby is in a bad place right now.
Unreal for the sport!! Makes the competition a whole lot more competitive! Will be interesting to see how far Argentina go at the WC.
@Aaron Tynan: Further than us, I fear.
@Bluepoolroad: draw kinder to them I think than Ireland – SA or NZ is a tough 1/4
The second semi just finished. Cracking game. 30-26 crusaders.
That jaguares kit is lovely
@Eoin Murphy: i wonder where one could buy it?
@Tony Stack: https://www.elverys.ie/elverys/en/search?text=jaguares
Great. When Argentina played in the November series against Ireland. Which i went too. It was the Jaguares team.
Jags play flat and pass wonderfully, it’s great to watch. The crowd was brilliant too.
I think the Crusaders will have too much for them at home, but I’d love to see the Jags win it.
Where’s the final taking place?
@Bluepoolroad: crusaders ground
@Bluepoolroad: Crusaders home stadium in Christchurch, super rugby needs to start playing them in neutral venues, even if it’s in the higher ranked clubs home country. Home stadium advantage is a bit much for a final.
@Con Al: The problem is distances. Say Cape Town was this year’s venue, how many Jaguares and Crusaders supporters are going to make it at a weeks notice? Stadium would be near empty. At least in the current system, one set of supporters see the final and home advantage is based on merit earned during the season. Not perfect, but understandable system