José Mourinho hailed Chelsea’s win against Manchester United as a tactical masterclass of his own making but could not resist breaking free from the celebrations to complain about the way he perceives Louis van Gaal’s players are treated differently in the media compared with his own.
Ten points clear, Chelsea can wrap up the championship with almost a month to spare if they win their next two games but Mourinho insisted it was no time to celebrate. “Football is not about ‘if’, it’s not about ‘almost’, it’s about mathematics. When mathematically it’s done, it’s done, we celebrate. Until that moment, no. We need two victories to be champions.”
Mourinho was unhappy with the incident late in the match when Ander Herrera was booked for trailing out his leg to try to win a penalty off Gary Cahill. “I am happy that it was not a Chelsea player. If it was a Chelsea player, on Sky it would be somebody’s ‘crimes’, it would be ‘cheating’, it would be ‘the champions of the team without fair play’ and these kind of things. Because it’s a Man United player tomorrow nobody remembers.”
Eden Hazard scored the winning goal and Mourinho praised his players for sticking to a tactical plan that involved Kurt Zouma being added to midfield to help counter the threat of Marouane Fellaini. “The game went exactly as we had worked for the game to be – exactly as we wanted, and when that happens it is fantastic. We were able to make their important players disappear. Nobody saw them. They were in our pockets. Football is talent but strategy is also important. I love it. On top of that Eden had the magic that the top players have, especially in big matches.”
Louis van Gaal had an entirely different perspective, describing it as United’s best performance of his reign, and arguing that Hazard’s goal should have been disallowed for a foul in the build-up. “I’m not frustrated, I’m very proud of my team,” Van Gaal said. “We played the best match of the season. But in football you can lose in spite of being the better team. We dominated the game and when you see the statistics it’s unbelievable that the result is 1-0.”
Chelsea now face Arsenal next Sunday before going to Leicester City the following Wednesday, and victory away to their closest rivals would mean that the title could be secured at the King Power Stadium. Even if they lost those games then of the four matches that follow three are at Stamford Bridge, against Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Sunderland.
Mourinho said: “What we can also say is that we can also play for nine points at home. We can be champions just at home with the matches we play. Obviously if we can get points away, it’s better. I will be ready to work again next week and to make the players feel that there is still a long way to go.”
