Month: September 2015

Jose Mourinho has reflected on his team’s 2-2 draw away at Newcastle and said, “In the first half, from 0-10, we were minus one. It was that bad”.

The defending Premier League champions went to St. James’ Park on the back of a 2-0 win over Arsenal in the league, though they were without the services of Diego Costa after the controversial front man was banned by the Football Association for striking the face of the Gunners’ defender Laurent Koscielny.

Despite having their tails up and hoping they’d be able to get themselves back into the mix at the top of the table, it was Newcastle who started the better of the two teams. Chelsea couldn’t get into the game in the first half and it was not against the run of play when Ayoze Perez gave the Magpies the lead after 42 minutes.

Things went from bad to worse in the second half when Georgino Wijnaldum doubled Newcastle’s lead with a stooping header and it looked as though the Geordies were going to secure their first three points of the season. Mourinho said, “We were so poor, so bad. At half time I said I was sorry I only had three subs as I wanted to change six… In the second half we played very well”.

The Blues were the better team in the second half and two goals in eleven minutes from Ramires and Willian allowed last year’s runaway winners to get themselves back into the match and come away with a point. Mourinho said, “Ramires and Willian moved the game. They brought more intensity, were much more dynamic. Newcastle could not cope with it”.

The manager was unsure what caused his side’s lethargic display in the first half against a team that was knocked out of the League Cup during the week by Sheffield Wednesday. He said, “I have to try to understand why they can play so bad in one half and so well in the other. We were bad in every aspect of the game in the first half. Too many poor individual performances and it was impossible to be a competitive team”.

With Manchester City shocking everyone in the league by losing 4-1 away at White Hart Lane Jose Mourinho will be glad that his team have been able to catch up with the team who had been at the top of the table by four points in the last two weekends. The Blues will need to be hitting ten out of ten in the coming weeks if they wish to retain their Premier League crown, however.

Jose Mourinho appeared to take a swipe at Arsene Wenger last week when he made reference to ‘the king’ who is ‘privileged’.

Mourinho has long had a rivalry with Arsenal manager Wenger and in the past has called him a ‘specialist in failure’ and suggested that he might be a ‘voyeur’ who likes to ‘watch other people’.

Now the self proclaimed ‘Special One’ has appeared to take a pot shot at Wenger in the wake of the Gunners’ boss criticisms of Diego Costa, though he has avoided calling him by his name. Mourinho said, “He can speak about referees, push people in the technical areas, can cry in the morning and afternoon, nothing happens. Cannot achieve, keep his job, can still be the king, it is privilege”.

Wenger was forthright in his criticism of Chelsea striker Costa, who appeared to goad Gabriel Paulista before the Arsenal defender lashed out at him and received a red card in the North London derby last week. That came after the Brazilian born Spanish international raised his hand and arm to the face of Laurent Koscielny, an offence that earned Costa a suspension from the Football Association last week.

Mourinho said, “In this country only one manager is not under pressure, every other manager is under pressure. Manuel Pellegrini, Brendan Rodgers, Steve McClaren. We cannot lose matches, we cannot be below expectations”.

Mourinho was asked by a journalist who it was that he was referring to and he responded by saying, “You know”.

In the press conference prior to Chelsea’s game against Newcastle at the weekend, a game the Blues drew 2-2-, Mourinho was asked whether he was frustrated that he had not received the reason for Costa’s ban in writing. He said, “You question is clear, you don’t need my answer. It is not normal but nothing more to say. If I answer I am going to be suspended. I don’t comment because in the rulebook it says some managers can speak about the referees before and after the game and others cannot. I am in the ones that are punished if they do. I have to stick with that rule book”.

Chelsea’s Eva Carneiro, the club doctor who was at the centre of the controversy surrounding Jose Mourinho after the clubs 2-2 draw with Swansea City on the opening day of the season, has decided not to return to work six weeks after the incident in Chelsea’s opening game.

With the Blues already down to ten men after the sending off of Thibaut Courtois for a foul on Swansea striker Bafetimbi Gomis, Carneiro and Chelsea’s physio Jon Fearn both ran on to the pitch to treat Eden Hazard who was on the turf with an injury. Despite the medical team having been called on more than once by the match referee, Jose Mourinho was furious with them for being “impulsive and naïve”, according to his post match comments. Their decision to treat Hazard meant he had to leave the field of play with just minutes left on the clock, leaving Chelsea with nine men for some of the closing stages of the match.

Mourinho screamed at them to leave the forward alone, reportedly calling Carneiro a ‘son of a bitch’ in Portuguese. This has led the FA to investigate the possibility that the Chelsea manager used ‘foul or abusive language’ towards her that, if found guilty, could lead to a suspension for the Portuguese maestro.

Carneiro was demoted in the aftermath of the game, with Mourinho deciding that she should no longer be on the bench for Chelsea’s matches or attend training sessions, but would still treat the players at the club’s Cobham facility.

Carneiro had not returned to her position at the club and was in conversation with her lawyers. Chelsea wanted the doctor to return to her position but today it has been revealed that she has decided not to and it is believed that she is considering legal action.

Despite his assertion that he has a ‘good relationship’ with his medical staff, the news will come as a blow to Mourinho and Chelsea, especially considering that the Chelsea manager came under a lot of criticism in the aftermath of the incident.

Heather Rabbatts, a Football Association board member and chair of the inclusion advisory board, has expressed her ‘sadness and anger’ that Carneiro has decided to leave the defending Premier League champions. She said, “News of Dr Eva Carneiro’s departure from Chelsea FC makes me feel sadness and anger. Eva was one of the few very senior women in the game, a highly respected doctor who has acted with professional integrity in difficult circumstances and whose skills have been highly praised by her colleagues, the club and governing bodies”.

Though Chelsea have refused to comment on the incident, saying that they “do not comment on internal employment issues”, the press office refused to deny that Carneiro has left the club when contacted by Sky Sports.

The Football Association has confirmed that Diego Costa will be suspended for three matches after a charge of violent conduct was upheld.

Costa was criticised by Arsene Wenger in the aftermath of Chelsea’s match with Arsenal due to his behaviour that led to the sending off of the Gunners’ defender Gabriel. Wenger said, “He [Costa] can do what he wants, he stays on and everybody else who responds to him has to be sent off. I think it is unacceptable his behaviour. If you look well at the pictures what he does to Koscielny before he pushes him down he hits him in the face and the throat, he always gets away with it”.

In the end, though, Costa has not got away with it as the referee missed the incident in question when Costa appeared to elbow Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny in the face, meaning that the incident could be put before the FA’s independent panel, which can use video footage to judge different incidents.

Costa had denied the charge but the FA’s decision to uphold it means that he will now miss Chelsea’s next three games against Walsall in tomorrow night’s Capital One Cup tie, Saturday’s evening Premier League fixture against Newcaslte United and the Blues’ home match in the league against Southampton a week on Saturday.

To rub salt into the wounds as far as Chelsea are concerned the FA have chosen to overturn Gabriel Paulista’s red card, which was issued for lashing out at Costa after the forward was seen to stand behind the defender and whisper in his ear, causing him to throw his foot out towards the defending Premier League champion’s striker.