CHELSEA boss Jose Mourinho came out fighting from the latest wreckage of the BPL reigning champions title defence. The self-styled Special One oversaw a debilitating 3-1 home reverse to Southampton, Chelsea’s second defeat at the Stamford Bridge in three league matches and came out blaming everybody but himself!
From both BPL and European refs who “are afraid to give Chelsea clear decisions” to sensational journalism, underperforming players and even Blues hierarchy, everyone was to blame except the Special One!
Mourinho dishonestly moaned at a “clear penalty” claim denied Radamel Falcao on 57 minutes when score was still 1-1 and said that was the turning point of the match. Of course, he didn’t remember the Saints were the better side and deserved their victory which could have been more embarrassing had DusanTadic displayed cool head when faced with open goal late in the game.
Mou also forgot that the plucky Saints had two very strong penalty claims in the first half which ref Robert Madley waved away. Fumbling Branislav Ivanovic nearly tore Virgil van Dijk’s shirt in a set-piece and would have been punished had the officials seen it.
But the most blatant of the claims also came in the first half when Ramires clipped the foot of man-of-the-match Sadio Mane in the box. Even though Madley was only yards away, he ignored the Saints’ legitimate appeal and to add salt to injury booked the Senegalese!
But while the officials probably wrongfully denied Soton two penalties, Madley was spot on in rejecting Chelsea’s appeal as Falcao clearly went down, expecting a contact that didn’t come from Saints goalkeeper Martin Stekelenburg. The Colombian forward was duly booked for simulation, and could have been red-carded about eight minutes later when he made a rugby tackle to upend Chelsea’s tormentor-in-chief in the match Mane.
Though I had predicted a long season for the Blues, even I never expected this kind of slump from Mourinho’s wards and the chief culprit of this calamitous collapse is Mou himself, whoever he tries to blame it on.
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