At the end of the last Premier League season, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho could do no wrong. His beloved Blues were slated to be repeat champions and not much stood in their way. What a difference a few months make; four pre-season losses, a poor showing in the Community Shield and dropping four points to begin the new season has Mourinho reeling and spouting non-sense.
It is understood that Mourinho has no love for Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and new Real Madrid boss Rafa Benitez. Before the Community Shield, which Arsenal won 1-0; Mourinho berated Wenger for his spending in the transfer market though he has spent more himself this summer. He then went after Benitez and his wife (Montse Seara) after she stated that her husband was busy “tidying up the mess” that Mourinho left behind. Granted she fired the first shot, but it was a poor decision to go after Benitez by “fat shaming” him in the media and not many though his retort was very funny. Some call it mind games, but it seems a bit childish at this stage.
Mourinho did not stop there though; after the Community Shield, he tossed his runners-up medal into the crowd claiming he did not keep “losers medals”. He stated to the media "We were the best team. We had more initiative; we controlled the game by having ball possession”. Unless the rules were changed at the beginning of this campaign, wins come from scoring more goals than your opponent, not who controls the ball longest.
On opening day, Chelsea welcomed Swansea to Stamford Bridge and they played to a 2-2 draw. Chelsea’s defense was lackadaisical and show very little spirit or resolve. They were then reduced to ten men after keeper Thibaut Courtois was shown a straight red in the 52nd minute. Instead of saying that his side were held by a determine Swansea team, which got behind the defense many times during the match or blaming the officials for the straight red card, he thought it best to blame his medical staff. Mourinho then proceeded to suspend the physios indefinitely from the bench for future matches. This drama has yet to work itself out and it is a good bet that we have not heard the last of it.
After yesterday’s 3-0 pounding by Manchester City, Mourinho again went of the offensive claiming City’s win was ”fake”. Mourinho was partially right in that the only “fake” thing was the score line, which could have been a lot worst except for the brilliant saves made by keeper Asmir Begovic.
In one of the match’s lighter moments, Chelsea defender Gary Cahill went down in the first half. “Replacement” physios, Chris and Steven Hughes rush on to the pitch to care for the injured player and the Etihad greeted them to a standing ovation and a chat of “You’re Getting Sacked in the Morning”. To make matters worse, Diego Costa took an elbow to the head from City defender Fernandinho and the City staff had to patch him up since Chelsea did not have enough medical staff to go around.
There is no doubt that Jose Mourinho is a great manager, but it might be time for him to back away from the media for a week or so to get his house in order. Chelsea is completely out of sorts right now and is playing with very little inspiration. Yes, we are only two games into the season, but right now the plot is lost and no one seems to know what page were on.
Source: DSG
