Chelsea’s players will be desperate to get one over their old manager Jose Mourinho when they take on Manchester United this weekend, says Martin Keown.
The Blues host United at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon, with Mourinho returning to his old club for the first time since his sacking there last December.
Mourinho’s legendary status with Chelsea fans is surely secured, but he notably rubbed many of his players up the wrong way before his departure last season.
Now in charge of United, Keown believes victory over Mourinho will be especially sweet for the likes of Eden Hazard on Sunday.
‘This weekend there will be a lot of Chelsea players fired up to beat him. Mourinho had special relationships with players but he often pushed it too far and fell out with a lot of people,’ Keown told the Daily Mail.
‘It’ll be especially interesting to see how Eden Hazard performs in this game.
‘When (former Arsenal manager) George Graham came back to Highbury with Leeds and Tottenham we all had a great respect for him but were also desperate to beat him. His management style was so demanding and we knew it inside out.
‘We felt like we should beat him because we knew exactly how he would set up and exactly what he’d be saying to his players in the dressing room. Plus there was only one of him and eleven of us.’
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