Month: November 2015

Mark Cole, the BBC’s head of football, has explained why Chelsea have been first on Match Of The Day so often this season, with the reason being something that Blues fans might not be too pleased to hear.

The defending Premier League champions have endured their worst start to a top tier campaign since the 1978/1979 season, when a win was only worth 2 points. They have lost seven out of their opening twelve league fixtures, but the campaign hasn’t been boring for the neutral.

Louis Van Gaal’s Manchester United side, who have been consistently criticised for being boring, sit just two points off the Premier League summit, yet they have only been first on the BBC’s flagship football review show once and have been in the sixth slot four times.

Chelsea, meanwhile, have been first on the show hosted by Gary Lineker five times, with the Blues losing all five matches. Jose Mourinho has found himself under increasing pressure this season, with many pundits feeling as though the loss to Liverpool in the week before the international break could be the Portuguese manager’s last chance. That they went on to lose to Stoke the following week has merely added to the scrutiny the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ is facing.

Mark Cole made an attempt to explain why Chelsea have been such good entertainment so far this season. He said, “When the champions are losing, it is always a story. Throw in a bit of Jose Mourinho and it means they are quite often in the mix around the top of the running order. We also look at the publicity side, in terms of what is going to be on the back pages of the newspapers, because that basically is what people want to see. It dominates so many of the back pages and it is something there is real interest in – what is going to happen next in the soap opera that is Jose Mourinho?”

What is going to happen next in the soap opera that is Jose Mourinho is a question that everybody would like to know the answer to. This weekend Chelsea face Norwich City at Stamford Bridge in a 3pm kick off on Saturday, with a win against the newly promoted side a must for the Portuguese manager and his team. He’ll be hoping that they will be first on Match Of The Day this weekend for all of the right reasons.

Cesc Fabregas used his trip home for the international break to explain his anger and frustration at Chelsea’s season so far. He didn’t pull any punches when telling the Spanish newspaper that ‘the season is ******’.

Having lost seven of their opening twelve games, the defending Premier League champions found themselves just three points clear of the relegation places heading in to the international break. 28 year old Fabregas, who signed for Chelsea in June 2014, knows things aren’t going well for the Blues but can’t understand what’s gone wrong. He said, “The results aren’t doing our performances justice. We’re playing better but aren’t having any luck. When things are going your way, you flick the ball with your heel and it flies into the top corner, whereas now every piledriver is going off target. Either way, we need to get back to winning ways sooner rather than later”.

Fabregas was an integral part of Chelsea’s title winning team last season, with the former Arsenal man earning huge plaudits for his style of play and for what he brought to the side. Yet he was publicly criticised by Jose Mourinho earlier this season, with the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ saying, “I’m not happy with Ivanovic’s form, Cahill’s, John’s, Azpi’s, Fabregas’, Matic’s, Eden’s”.

The barbs from his manager stung the former Barcelona midfielder, though two weeks ago he was forced to deny media allegations that he was the organiser of a dressing room revolt against Mourinho. At the time he said he was ‘extremely happy at Chelsea’ and that his relationship with the manager was ‘excellent’.

They were sentiments that Fabregas confirmed in his interview with Marca, saying, “Things with Mou are good. Obviously when you’re not winning things always get said, whereas when you’re winning everything’s rosy. But all of us – the players, fans and the coach – have to pull together and hang tough. We’re the only ones who can turn things round. Nobody is going to give us a helping hand. We’re still in a position to challenge the big boys in the Champions League, but in the Premier League we need to get our act together right away”.

Chelsea have a chance to ‘get their act together’ on Saturday when they welcome Norwich City to Stamford Bridge in the Premier League. A home win will help to ease the pressure on Jose Mourinho and his players. Lose, though, and things will only go from bad to worse for Fabregas and his team mates.

It seems unlikely that Diego Costa will face any further action from the Football Association after seeming to deliberately stamp on the foot of a Stoke City steward during Chelsea’s game at The Britannia Stadium this weekend.

A steward alleged that he had been assaulted after the Chelsea striker made contact with his foot when he went to collect the football for a throw-in. Costa is a notoriously troublesome striker and was involved in a number of incidents during the game, though the match referee Anthony Taylor did not punish him for any of them.

Though a Chelsea official has described the incident with the steward ‘utter nonsense’, it will go into the referee’s match report and will be looked at by the FA. With Stoke City having now confirmed that the incident has been ‘resolved’ the likelihood is that that FA will decide to take the matter no further.

Chelsea fell to their seventh defeat of the season at The Britannia Stadium and they did so without their manager in attendance. Jose Mourinho had been banned from the stadium because of his actions during his side’s 2-1 loss to West Ham when he refused to leave the referee’s dressing room at half-time and bombarded the officials with a foul-mouthed rant.

Chelsea’s stand-in goalkeeper Asmir Begovic has gone public with his support of under-fire manager Jose Mourinho in the wake of the London club’s loss to Stoke City in the Premier League, and suggested that the rest of the squad are on his side, too.

The defending Premier League champions are 16th in the top flight division after suffering their third straight defeat in the league. They have lost seven times in their first twelve matches and endured their worst start since 1978-1979 when a win was only worth two points.

Jose Mourinho has been under pressure since the first match of the season when the Blues failed to get a win against Swansea City at Stamford Bridge, with the manager criticising his medical staff for running on to the pitch to treat Eden Hazard towards the end of the match. That resulted in the decision from the club doctor, Eva Carneiro, to leave her position and Jose Mourinho is now the subject of an individual lawsuit on the back of comments he made at the time.

Mourinho was absent from the ground on Saturday after receiving a £40,000 fine and a one-match stadium ban for his behaviour during his side’s loss to West Ham earlier in the season. The self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ confronted the match referee, Jonathan Moss, at half-time and was invited into the referee’s dressing room to discuss his grievances. After Moss had answered his questions he asked the Chelsea manager to leave, but he refused to do so on two separate occasions. Eventually Moss had to request the help of West Ham’s head of security to get Mourinho out of the room, with the 52 year old shouting a tirade of abuse at the referee as he was leaving.

Begovic is confident that the Portuguese manager can turn things around, however, saying, “We are behind the manager – you can see that from our performances. We think he is the right man and someone we work hard for. His spirit and his presence is always there. We wanted to get a result for him”.

The club that won the Premier League at a canter last season are just three points above the relegation zone, though, after a torrid start to their latest campaign. They had scored an impressive 30 goals after their first 12 games last season, though they’ve only managed 16 goals this time around. Former England attacker Alan Shearer believes it is this lack of goals that is causing the Blues such problems. Speaking on the BBC’s Match of The Day he said, “Stoke were brilliant but a massive problem for Chelsea is scoring goals. There were not enough questions being asked of the Stoke back four and they were very, very comfortable. There was not enough running from Chelsea – people were going towards the ball rather than in behind. It was far too easy for Stoke to defend. That all changed when Loic Remy came on but before that it was just too easy for Stoke to defend against”.

With an easier set of fixtures coming up after the international break Mourinho will be confident that he can revive his club’s ailing fortunes, and the backing of his players will likely appease his concerns after reports emerged last week that there was a group of Chelsea players conspiring against their manager.

The Football Association have released their written reasons for issuing Jose Mourinho with a £40,000 fine and a one match stadium ban. Mourinho will not be allowed into The Britannia Stadium for this evening’s match between Chelsea and Stoke City after choosing not to appeal against the ban, which was issued for the “persistent and/or aggressive nature of the reported behaviour” of the Blues’ manager during the half-time interval of his side’s 2-1 loss to West Ham United last month.

The report claims that the Portuguese manager went into the referee’s room at half-time upon the invitation of the referee, something manager’s are usually forbidden from doing, and then refused to leave several times when Jonathan Moss asked him too. Moss wrote his report of the incident after the match and said, “I asked him to leave the dressing room area. He refused. I asked him again. After he refused I asked Mr Sutton [West Ham’s security manager] to escort him from the room. At this point Mr Mourinho became very aggressive and animated. He shouted that you f*cking referees are weak… Wenger is right about you… you are f*cking weak”.

The reference to Wenger comes after the Arsenal manager was not punished after he called Mike Dean ‘weak’ and ‘naive’ after his side lost to Chelsea in September. That annoyed 52 year old Mourinho who was fined £50,000 and given a one match suspended stadium ban after saying that referees were ‘afraid’ to give his side penalties in the aftermath of Chelsea’s 3-1 home loss to Southampton.

Mourinho made clear his disgust at the fact that he was punished and Wenger was not when he said, “This stadium ban is connected to words, to complaints. I can imagine that in the future we are going to have lots of managers with stadium bans, because the stadium bans should be related to something really serious”.

The FA report into the incident at West Ham said that the self-proclaimed ‘Special One, “showed a total lack of respect for the match officials and the sanctuary of their changing room”. They also explained why they felt that a touchline ban alone wouldn’t have sufficed after this incident, saying, “To only order a touchline ban would have the potential of enabling Mr Mourinho to commit a similar offence” as he would still have has access to the dressing room area.

Super-agent Jorge Mendes has come out in defence of his client Jose Mourinho and said that he is convinced that the under-fire Chelsea boss is the only one that can get the Blues out of their current malaise.

Chelsea are currently 15th in the Premier League with just 11 points after the same amount of games. They have suffered 6 defeats so far, with three of the losses coming at Stamford Bridge. They have also been knocked out of the League Cup by Stoke City and they are second in their Champion’s League group after Wednesday’s 2-1 home win over Dynamo Kiev.

Speaking to BBC Sport’s Dan Roan the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’’s chief advisor said, “He doesn’t need to prove anything to anybody. He knows what to do. Many people are saying these things but there is no chance [that he will leave]. He will solve the problem. He is the best”.

Chelsea are playing Stoke at The Britannia Stadium this weekend, but their manager won’t be on the touchline after deciding not to appeal against the Football Association’s one match stadium ban, given for his behaviour during his club’s 2-1 loss to West Ham at The Boleyn Ground.

Mendes is one of the best known and respected agents in the business. He has apparently brokered more than £1 billion worth of transfers during his career and represents such players as Victor Valdes, David De Gea, Angel Di Maria and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Speaking about his under-fire client he said, “At FC Porto he won the Europa League, the league, the Champions League. He won everything. After that, in Chelsea he was amazing. After 50 years he won the league and everyone was very happy with him. At Inter Milan, nobody expected Inter could win the Champions League – no way. Even the quarter-finals seemed quite impossible. At Real Madrid against the best team in the world he still won the league. He is special. The reaction from the supporters tells you everything. They like him. Everyone, players, coaches, you have good moments and bad moments. It is impossible to find someone like him to solve the problem”.

Of course Mendes is hardly the most impartial of Mourinho’s supporters, but he’s chosen to speak on behalf of his client at a time when the Portuguese maestro is under immense pressure. Not only are his Chelsea side struggling to find form in the league but the man himself is also facing criticism from numerous quarters because of his behaviour so far this season.

On top of the stadium ban and £40,000 fine that Mourinho was given by the Football Association because of his behaviour during his side’s loss to West Ham, he has also been given a £50,000 fine and a one match suspended stadium ban for things he said in the aftermath of his side’s loss to Southampton at Stamford Bridge last month. He is also going to be the subject of an individual legal action from Eva Carneiro, the Chelsea club doctor who Mourinho labelled as ‘naive’ for treating Eden Hazard on the pitch during the closing moments of the first game of the season – a game that his side drew 2-2 with Swansea.

Jose Mourinho has thanked Chelsea’s ‘amazing’ fans after his side’s 2-1 win at home to Dynamo Kiev in the Champion’s League on Wednesday night.

The Portuguese manager has come under increasing pressure this term, with his Chelsea side already having lost six of their first eleven Premier League games. They are sit 15th in the league table with a mere eleven points.

Yet Chelsea fans showed their support for the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’, singing his name throughout their midweek game against Kiev at Stamford Bridge, leading Mourinho to say, “I have no other way to thank them than to give everything I have, which I do always. I had the moment when I came back to the club and we played the first match at home to Hull City and the way the stadium welcomed me was amazing – but not comparable with this. It is not comparable with this because it comes in a moment where the results are not good, it comes in a moment where the media are asking for my end. This is my moment because it was amazing. The club has to be very proud of their fans”.

The manager has been under-fire for most of the season, with his comments about the former Chelsea club doctor Eva Carneiro resulting in the manager being the subject of an individual law suit from her lawyers. He has also been given a £40,000 fine and a one match stadium ban for his behaviour during his club’s 2-1 loss to West Ham at The Boleyn Ground, as well as a £50,000 fine and a one match suspended stadium ban for words he said in the aftermath of his side’s 3-1 loss at home to Southampton last month.

Mourinho was pleased with his side’s mentality after they seemed to be heading towards a draw until Willian scored a late winner. He said, “We didn’t need to win to qualify so it was not a drama at 1-1. We knew that with a draw we would finish second in the group if we won our next two matches but from a mental point of view it was important to react to a negative moment. This was perfect because we conceded a goal with 15 minutes or so left and the team emerged. They knew 1-1 would be acceptable but they wanted to win and it will give them confidence”.

Yet it was the fans that Mourinho was thinking about most after the match, particularly the younger ones who have had to endure a difficult time of late, despite seeing their team win the league just six months ago. Mourinho said, “I think it is an amazing feeling for the club to know the fans are in a good moment and to see the streets full of people celebrating with a buzz. It is easy for kids to go to school with a Chelsea shirt when Chelsea are winning every match. With a Chelsea shirt on when Chelsea’s losing matches, they are probably bullied by other kids whose teams are winning”.