Jose Mourinho is returning to Wearside with a plan to reward his team’s brilliant start to the season.
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London - Having cancelled last Christmas following a defeat at Sunderland, Jose Mourinho is returning to Wearside on Saturday with a plan to reward his team’s brilliant start to the season with a little more festive spirit.
It will be a family bash, rather than a boozy night out, and will be squeezed among eight games in December as thanks for the ‘clear change’ in attitude during a campaign which has started without defeat in 19 games.
‘They are doing very well,’ said Mourinho. ‘Probably because of that, the club is preparing a little Christmas party for them and their families.’
Last year, after losing at Sunderland in the Capital One Cup, plans for a players’ night out were scrapped on the orders of the manager.
‘There are Christmas parties and Christmas parties,’ the Chelsea boss said. ‘This is one the families deserve and the boys are very happy to be with their families. This is a squad with a lot of kids aged from a couple of weeks to 10 years old. It’s good for them. For good things, we will find the time.
‘I have to go to say a couple of words and, after that, to leave them there with their families and kids.’
Chelsea are six points clear at the top of the Barclays Premier League and eight ahead of champions Manchester City. They are into the Capital One Cup quarter-finals and the last 16 of the Champions League and the manager is confident a significant corner has been turned.
‘They have changed,’ said Mourinho. ‘There was an evolution in these young people, a clear evolution. I don’t think the group can be complacent but it’s not a risk we have because it’s not the profile of this group. We were winning 5-0 against Schalke in the 88th minute and Eden Hazard made a sprint to defend. Minute 88, winning 5-0.’
In May Mourinho claimed Hazard was not ready to sacrifice himself for the team but noted an improvement as he criticised FIFPro’s Team of the Year award, for which several Chelsea players are shortlisted, with Hazard and Cesc Fabregas among the midfield nominees, revealed yesterday.
‘This kind of trophy is not good for football,’ said Mourinho. ‘Sometimes it looks like we are looking for stars and people to be more important than others. This is not the culture we want in this club.
‘The mentality here is not to be obsessed with that. When I see these names, Fabregas and Hazard, I think clearly they don’t think about it. They think about the team, about playing well and trying to win matches.’
Sunderland’s Gus Poyet can become the first manager to inflict three successive defeats on Mourinho with victory at the Stadium of Light this evening. Never, in 14 years in the dug-out, has the Portuguese suffered three straight losses at the hands of an opposite number.
Sunderland were 2-1 winners in the Capital One Cup quarter-final in December and repeated the scoreline in April to end Mourinho’s 77-match unbeaten run at Stamford Bridge.
And, for once, former Chelsea midfielder Poyet is relieved that the omens rest with his side. He said: ‘We’re usually on the wrong end of stats. We hadn’t won for ages on a Monday night and we didn’t beat someone for 50 years, but now we’re on the right side, so let me enjoy it.
‘We know how tough it’s going to be but it’s great to have the opportunity to beat them. Let’s try to do that.’
Daily Mail
from Soccer Soccer Extended RSS http://www.iol.co.za/brilliant-chelsea-put-jose-in-party-mood-1.1788386
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