About a month into the new season and a few days from their first Champions League game, Chelsea aren’t in great shape, although if you ask their manager, Jose Mourinho, the only reason they don’t have a perfect record is luck and referees, who he won’t talk about.
Chelsea played a bad second half in their 1-0 loss to Everton, their first defeat of the season in the league, making it two consecutive matches for them without a goal, following the 0-0 draw against Manchester United before the international break.
While a draw at Old Trafford isn’t something that draws too much criticism, the way Chelsea played right from the start, which is going for the draw instead of the win, should. The way Chelsea looked in their 2-1 wins over Hull City and Aston Villa didn’t deserve too much praise, but Mourinho made it sound like they were dominating with ease, and ignored the fact that he needed help from referees in order to score in both matches and ignore a handball by John Terry in the box against Villa.
Against Everton? Mourinho made a small hint about some penalty kick he deserved, but no one really remembers what he was talking about. He talks about 21 chances and dominating the match, but that was only a first half thing. All the substitutions he made in the second half weakened his side, and Everton were the much more dangerous team despite having the lead and naturally expected to protect it.
I don’t know if I have to say we didn’t deserve to lose or if I say we deserve to lose. We were the best team, played the best football, dominated the whole game, had 21 shots; we risked everything we could. In that sense, we deserve to win the game.
On the other hand, a team that had 21 shots, who had easy chances to score, made a mistake in the last minute of the first half as the goalkeeper gives the ball away and we concede a goal. Maybe, with that, we deserve to lose.
Mourinho likes to use stats when it fits. He forgets that most of those 22 attempts at goal weren’t even remotely dangerous. Only six shots were on goal, and about a couple of them actually troubled Howard. Everton might have been less active when ti comes to targeting Petr Cech, but they were the more dangerous team when you look beyond the numbers.
There was also the case of David Luiz not getting sent off for a clear-path foul that earned him only a booking in the second half, nothing more, despite being the last man standing on the way to the goal.
There’s nothing new about Mourinho twisting reality into something completely different coming out of his mouth, but it never ceases to amaze just how much he’s willing to ignore in order to make himself and his team look good.