Wednesday, 27 May 2015

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho couldn't resist poking some fun at the club's top-four rivals with a 'fictional' story on Tuesday night.



As the Chelsea stars enjoyed the lavish £240-a-head awards dinner at Battersea's Revolution venue, a string of accolades were given out to toast the Londoner's all-conquering Premier League campaign.
The league title was Mourinho's first since he returned to Chelsea in the summer of 2013 and prompted a playful dig at his fierce top-four rivals during a closing speech at the end of the evening.
Featuring pre-prepared graphics on a big screen above the stage, Mourinho started what he called a "fiction story" which effectively dismantled the tactics employed by Manchester UnitedManchester City andArsenal this season, and compared them to Chelsea's own.

The speech was as much a dig at Chelsea's 'parking the bus' critics in the media as it was a pointed barb towards rival managers Louis van Gaal, Manuel Pellegrini and Arsene Wenger, but it showed how fiercely protective Mourinho is of his club and his own personal principles of how the game should be played and won.
Taking the stage in defiant mood, Mourinho opened:  "My players did not get the respect they deserved from day one to the last day. These are words that I really feel, but now I have a fiction story and let's try to enjoy it."
The Portuguese manager started his story talking about Manchester United, underneath a graphic depicting Chelsea's 1-0 win over the Old Trafford team in April, when the general consensus was that Van Gaal's team had lost despite dominating possession. Mourinho said: "This is a game with two goals, but there is one team that like to play with the ball.
"That team plays really well and the ball goes and goes and goes and the quality of the ball possession is good, but they don't score. No points. They asked the FIFA committee if they can win like this but they're told it's not possible. That the bigger possession is not essential to win matches and they are not champions."
Moving on to Manchester City, who finished second to Chelsea in the final table, Mourinho highlighted how City like to score goals but can't prevent them also being conceded. 
"Then, there is another team," Mourinho continued, "only with one goal. And they score a lot of goals, from players in every position, and they score and they score and they score. But they never concede a goal because there's no goal. They speak to FIFA and they say they can't be champions because there is only one goal."
With the audience captivated, Mourinho moved onto his fiercest rival Arsene Wenger, with a reply to the Arsenal manager's criticism of Chelsea's perceived defensive tactics: "There is a third team, and the third team wants to play with two goals," Mourinho said "they were scoring some, they were also conceding some. But they score really beautiful goals and then the bus comes along and they couldn't do it."
Mourinho concluded his story with a simple summary of his champions: "And finally there is a team. They wanted to play with the normal rules and they know that in matches they have to score one more goal than the opponent. How can you do this? By scoring lots of goals, by not conceding and scoring one."

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