Jose Mourinho: The table is fake
Jose Mourinho: The EPL table is fake
Only Jose Mourinho can say “The table is fake” despite Chelsea sitting top of the table seven points clear. In his pre-match press conference, he addressed many issues. He talked about their match against Aston Villa, the Champions league results of Manchester City and Arsenal, Yaya Toure’s claims and Manager/player of the month awards.
The Blues are unbeaten in the league since a 3-2 loss against Stoke in December and face Paul Lambert’s side who Mourinho thinks will be tough opponents to overcome.
“Tomorrow we have a very difficult game, Three points would be fabulous, one point is not a bad result at Villa Park. Zero points would be a negative result but we’ll just go match by match and after Villa comes Arsenal in the Premier League.”
He accepted that Chelsea is in a good form and might achieve their objectives of next season (i.e. to win EPL) in this season. But, he also mentioned that they are taking one game at a time, as any manager would say when his team is at the top of table.
“We are on a good run but every game is difficult and the difference between winning and not winning is very narrow. We don’t look at the table because the table is fake.”
“We have clear objectives for next season but if we can reach them this season we won’t say no. We are very calm, very relaxed and that’s important. Against Fulham we played very badly in the first half but the team was comfortable and calm. Tottenham played a very good first half against us and we didn’t panic, so to be calm and relaxed is the best thing.”
He also reported that defenders Ashley Cole and David Luiz are out with injuries but Fernando Torres is okay and might play some part in the match.
He does not believe that Arsenal and Manchester City have an advantage after going out of the Champions League and says it depend upon Chelsea’s result against Galatasaray.
“It depends on us, if we manage to go through we will have two matches in the quarter-finals against a big opponent and that means a lot. If Galatasaray beat us and we are out of the Champions League, everybody has the same conditions.”
He responded to Yaya Toure’s claims that he has a lack of respect for other clubs by saying he has a strange concept of what a lack of respect means. According to him, he has always supported City, Arsenal and United to overcome there first leg defeats in CL.
“I say that Man City have three matches in hand and they’re capable of winning all three and going top, if that’s a lack of respect he has a strange concept of what a lack of respect is.”
At the end of the conference he discussed about the Manager and Player of the month awards. According to him, Sam Allardyce deserved the award but he also laughed about Hazard having not got any Player of the Month award in the ongoing season. This is not the first time in this season that he has felt Hazard should have won the award.
“I think Sam deserves it, he won four consecutive matches in February. When you win every match in the month normally you have to win the award. I didn’t in some of the months where I won every match, but that’s me. Sam deserves it because, like a shotgun, he took the team from a dangerous position. For Hazard to arrive at March without one single award makes me laugh.”
We can expect Mourinho to continue neglecting the fact that they are favorites for the title. We can probably expect him to repeat “The table is fake” claim after Chelsea’s win at Villa Park. With Manchester City having only Premier League matches from now on and Liverpool getting stronger every week, this title race is surely going down to the wire. This gameweek could be important for Arsenal and Liverpool as they face trickier opponents away from home and could see Chelsea taking a 10 point lead if all results go in their favour.