Chelsea are eight games from the title, but José Mourinho isn’t feeling the pressure. On Friday he addressed the media with his usual suave as he looked ahead to our crunch match with Queens Park Rangers. Here’s three things we learned from the Portuguese’s press conference.
Muto a commercial ploy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02r6XF54eLc
In recent days, Chelsea have been heavily linked with a move for Japan international Yoshinori Muto. On Thursday a spokesperson for FC Tokyo confirmed a bid had been made, but insisted that “nothing had been decided.” As expected, Mourinho was quizzed about Muto, who many believe is merely a ruse to appease our new big-money sponsors Yokohama.
“That’s modern football, modern management. You cannot close completely the door to a little bit of commercial interests. But at the same time a football club is always a football club. And a top football club only has space for very good players or at least very good prospects. So no we would never bring a player if the player has no capacity to be in the Chelsea squad.”
Matic and Fabregas to be risked
Both Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas have nine yellow cards to their names heading into the game against QPR. If either pick up another on Sunday, they will miss games against Manchester United and Arsenal; but Mourinho has insisted that at this stage of the season, our best players have to play.
“We try not to get yellow cards during a match, we play football. If they have to make a foul for a yellow card, this foul they have to do it. The way we play, it’s not easy for our players to be booked.”
Costa to miss four games
Diego Costa is not fit to play this weekend, and it doesn’t look like it’s the only game he’ll be missing during this crucial title run-in. Mourinho predicts that the Spaniard will also miss games against Manchester United, Arsenal and Leicester City.
“I’m not concerned, not concerned. I don’t want to think about it for two or three weeks, until he’s ready to play. That’s my approach. I’m not going to cry about it until he can play. You know, I think we have eight matches to play. If he plays four, it’s normal. If he plays three, it’s a little bit below what I’m expecting. If he plays five, it’s more than I’m expecting. I’m thinking about four matches to play.”
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