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Jose Mourinho used the aftermath of Chelsea’s game against Southampton to issue a stark warning to Roman Abramovich and the Chelsea board, telling them they’ll need to sack him if they want him out of the club.

The defending Premier League champions lost 3-1 in their match against the Saints at Stamford Bridge, leaving the club 16th in the league with eight points after eight games. It is Chelsea’s worst start to a top flight campaign since the 1978 – 1979 season, a time when a win earned two points rather than three.

Mourinho said, “I want to make it clear. One, I don’t run away. Two, if the club want to sack me they have to sack me because I am not running away from my responsibilities or my team. To be champions now is very difficult because the distance is considerable. But I am more than convinced that we will finish in the top four, and when the season is so bad if you finish in the top four it is OK. Third – and I think this is even more important than the first and the second – it is a crucial moment in the history of this club. You know why? Because if they sack me they sack the best manager this club had”.

Whether managers like Carlo Ancelotti or Guus Hiidink would consider Mourinho to be the best manager that the club has had is up for debate, but there can be no question that Mourinho is feeling the pressure in the Stamford Bridge dugout. The self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ is known to divert attention away from his under-performing team by creating headlines elsewhere and this weekend is no exception. The Portuguese manager was critical of the match referee, Robert Madley, in his post match press conference.

Radamel Falcao went over in the box when challenged by Southampton’s ‘keeper Martin Stekelenburg but the referee waved away their protests. Mourinho said, “He was afraid to give it like everyone else is afraid to give it.
Why? Because there is always a question mark from you and always a critic so we are always punished. The penalty in this game is more than crucial because my team, at the moment, the first negative thing that happens… they collapse. After that the team lost even more confidence. Mentally, psychologically, the team is unbelievably down. If the Football Association wants to punish me they can. They don’t punish other managers”.

When Southampton’s manager, Ronald Koeman, was asked whether he agreed with Jose Mourinho’s comment that the result may have been different had the referee awarded a penalty he pointed out that Southampton had two of their own spot kick shouts turned down. He said, “Maybe so. It would have been 5-2 then, even worse for them. Maybe, if they had [claims for] one penalty we had [claims for] two penalties, that’s a decision for the referee to make”.

So far this season only Sunderland, who sit 19th in the league, have conceded more than Chelsea’s 17 goals. Mourinho said that their current is self-perpetuating and that he isn’t the only one who needs to take some responsibility for the club’s failings. Mourinho: “I assume my responsibilities. The players should assume their responsibilities. There are other people in the club that should also assume their responsibilities and to stick together. This is what I want. You know I have a big self-esteem and a big ego. I consider myself the best, having the worst period and worst results of my career. Doing that as a professional hurts me a lot and doing that at Chelsea hurts me twice. I want to carry on, no doubt. Sadness brings sadness and bad results attracts bad results”.

The Football Association has come under renewed criticism after Chelsea’s former club doctor, Eva Carneiro, revealed that ‘at no stage’ was she asked to give evidence to the FA during their investigation into allegedly derogatory remarks made by Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho was cleared of any wrong doing by the FA after their investigation into his reported use of the phrase ‘filho da puto’, which is Portuguese for ‘son of a bitch’. Their linguistic experts decided that the phrase was not specifically aimed at Carneiro and was uttered in a general sense, despite the fact that Women In Football’s own language experts felt it was very deliberately aimed at Carneiro herself.

The incident occurred during the defending Premier League champion’s opening game of the season against Swansea City at Stamford Bridge. Carneiro and Jon Fearn, Chelsea’s physio, ran on to the pitch to treat Eden Hazard after being called on to do so by Michael Oliver, the match referee, several times. Because he was given treatment he had to leave the field of play, temporarily leaving Chelsea with nine men as their goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, had already been sent off for a foul on the Swans striker Bafetimbi Gomis, hence Mourinho’s anger and frustration with his medical team.

The head of the FA , Greg Dyke, has criticised Mourinho and suggested he should apologise. Asked about the incident itself and Dyke’s suggestion, the Portuguese manager said, “For the last two months I did not open my mouth and I will keep like this. One day I will speak, and I will choose that day… I am quiet about it for a long time. I read, and listen, and watch, and I am quiet”.

Carneiro, speaking about the matter publicly for the first time, said, “Incidents such as these…make it so difficult for women in the game… I wonder whether this might be the only formal investigation in this country where the evidence of the individuals involved in the incident was not considered relevant”.

The former club doctor has chosen not to return to work at Chelsea after the incident occurred and Mourinho decided to downgrade her role at the club. She said that the whole experience has left her disillusioned with the game and mentioned an occasion last season when the FA failed to ask her for a statement after she was subjected to obscene chants. She said, “Last season I had a similar experience at a game at West Ham, where I was subject to verbal abuse. Following complaints by the public, the FA produced a communication saying there had been no sexist chanting during this game. At no time was I approached for a statement despite the fact that vile, unacceptable, sexually explicit abuse was clearly heard”.

Jose Mourinho feels he is suffering from the ‘worst period and results’ of his professional career, it has emerged today. The defending Premier League champions have won just two and lost three of seven games in the top flight so far this season, leaving them in fourteenth position in the league.

The Portuguese manager, who called himself ‘The Special One’ when he first arrived in the Premier League, said in his press conference before the weekend’s game against Southampton, “I get it as a fantastic experience – an experience that I don’t want to repeat. To come after 15 years is too late but it’s helping me to be better. It is a great negative experience”.

Despite not having a great start to the new season and having some high profile incidents with his own players – such as dropping John Terry from the starting line up when fit for the first time during his time as manager at Stamford Bridge – Mourinho has claimed that there are no problems between himself and the players. He said, “The players, when they make a mistake, they know and they feel. We speak openly, no prima donnas. When you make a mistake you have to speak about it. I call it ‘coaching’”.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has blamed the club’s Champion’s League defeat against Porto on some ‘ridiculous moments’ as the Blues suffered their fifth loss of the season in all competitions.

Chelsea went behind to a Bras Andre goal after 38 minutes in the match against Mourinho’s former club before Willian brought them level with a superbly struck free kick just before half time. The Blues were beaten 2-1, though, when Maicon headed the Portuguese outfit in front after seven minutes of the second half.

Mourinho said, “We watch dozens and dozens of repetitions of Porto taking corners. We were completely ready for that… When the game is under control we concede a goal that is ridiculous”. The defeat means that, despite beating Maccabi Tel Aviv 4-0 in the opening game of group G, Chelsea are third in the table behind Porto and Dynamo Kiev.

With Chelsea also sitting fifteenth in the Premier League it is not the first time this season that Mourinho has felt that luck has gone against the defending Premier League champions. He said, “They hit the post from a similar mistake. Apart from that the game was balanced. Two ridiculous moments and we were punished”.

In the aftermath of Chelsea’s 2-2 draw with Newcastle in the league last weekend Mourinho said that the Blues were worthy of ‘minus one out of ten’ for their first half performance. After the match in Portugal, however, he was glad to have seen some form of response from his players. He said, “The team played well and there were good reactions from the goals we conceded. We had chances to equalise and had desire. When you feel everything is going against you it is disappointing. The team tried until the end so I have nothing to say against them”.

The Portuguese maestro also denied that there are any problems between him and his players, despite the fact that last year’s PFA Player Of The Year Eden Hazard was dropped to the bench in the game. He said, “I have no problems with anyone and have a fantastic relationship with everyone”. He also played down the importance of the loss, making clear that he feels Chelsea are still in an excellent position to make it through to the knockout stages of the competition. He said, “We are third in this moment with three points and have another difficult match against Dynamo Kiev coming up. We have matches at home and we think we can qualify”.

The Football Association have cleared Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho of any wrong doing as far as discriminatory comments towards the club doctor Eva Carneiro is concerned, infuriating many people including the campaign group Women In Football.

Mourinho was involved a foul mouthed tirade towards Carneiro during Chelsea’s opening game of the season against Swansea City at Stamford Bridge. Having already had his goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois sent off for a challenge on Swansea’s striker Bafetimbi Gomis, Mourinho was angry to see the club doctor, Carneiro, and the physio, Jon Fearn, run on to the pitch to treat Eden Hazard who was lying on the floor apparently injured in the final moments of the game. It meant that Hazard had to leave the pitch for treatment, momentarily leaving Chelsea with only nine players against Swansea’s eleven men.

According to lip reading experts Mourinho appeared to call Carneiro a “filho da puto” in Portuguese which, roughly translated into English means ‘son of a bitch’. He also spoke after the match about the incident and appeared to belittle Carneiro with a sexist barb when he said that even a “secretary on the bench” should know the rules of the game.

Women In Football said, “Our own language expert made it abundantly clear that the abusive words used by Mr Mourinho on the touchline that day were specifically directed towards a woman, as indicated by the grammar of his sentence. Other Portuguese speakers we contacted in gathering evidence also emphasised this point. We therefore find it extraordinary that any expert or Portuguese speaker would report otherwise”.

The statement from Women In Football was in response to the FA’s own statement that said it was ‘satisfied the words used do not constitute discriminatory language under FA rules’.

In a strongly worded statement Women In Football made clear their disdain towards the FA and the manner in which it operates, saying, “It’s another example of the FA failing to tackle discrimination. We are concerned by the serious flaws in the process of such investigations”.

Carneiro found that her role at the club was to be downgraded after the incident, with her presence on the bench during matches and at the sideline during the defending Premier League champion’s training sessions no longer required. She subsequently decided to leave the club meaning one of the few high profile women in important positions in the game was no longer there.

It is not the first time the Football Association have been embroiled in a decision over the interpretation of language, with the case against Luis Suarez in the aftermath of his incident with Patrice Evra being a prime example. In that case Liverpool Football Club’s lawyers and language experts claimed that the language used by the Uruguayan forward towards the French defender was in no way racially motivated, with the FA’s own experts disagreeing.

In this case the FA said, “Both the words used, as translated and analysed by the independent expert, and the video evidence, do not support the conclusion that the words were directed at any person in particular”. The decision means that Mourinho will not undergo any reprisals for the words he chose to use an will continue to be able to manager Chelsea from the sidelines during games as he hopes to get their season back on track.

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.

The Football Association have today declared that Diego Costa is to be charged with violent conduct after Chelsea’s match against Arsenal.

The Brazilian born Spanish striker was involved in a number of clashes against the Gunners during the defending Premier League champion’s game over the weekend, including a coming together with Laurent Koscielny that the FA have decided is worthy of a review.

Whilst wrestling the Arsenal defender for the ball in the penalty area Costa appeared to drag his hand across his opponent’s face before slamming his elbow into his cheek then chest bumping the Arsenal man to the floor. The incident was missed by the match officials but caught on camera, meaning that the FA can deal with it as a separate incident.

The Football Associations press release regarding the matter said, “Off the ball incidents which are not seen at the time by the match officials are referred to a panel of three former elite referees. Each referee panel member will review the video footage independently of one another to determine whether they consider it a sending-off offence. For retrospective action to be taken, and an FA charge to follow, the decision by the panel must be unanimous”.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was incensed by Costa’s behavior during the game and said that the FA needed to do something about it, claiming that it was the least they could do. He said, “I would like them, especially Mike Dean, to look at the whole action that happened during the game and see if he stands for his decision. But you have a fourth official, you have a linesman, the referee and they talk all the game. They know Diego Costa. He is not a newcomer. He was here for a year now. It is surprising. I tell you something, if I am a referee and I referee Diego Costa, I do not send somebody off quickly if he responds because you know he has been well provoked”.

Arsenal’s Gabriel was sent off for swinging a boot out at Costa and will also face an improper conduct charge, though the Gunners intend to appeal against the three match ban he will receive for his straight red card in the game.

The FA’s decision to charge Costa comes on the same day that Chelsea’s young defender Kurt Zouma apologised after branding his own team mate a ‘cheat’. Speaking to Bein Sport after the game he said, “Everyone knows Diego and this guy likes to cheat a lot and put the opponents out of his game, and that happened in the game”.

He has apologised for the incident, saying, “Sorry for any confusion. English is not my first language. I did not mean to accuse anyone of cheating. [Costa is] a player who puts pressure on his opponents and who I have huge respect for”.

Costa has until 6pm on Tuesday 22nd to respond to the charge.