Mourinho: One at a
time
With club football set to return
tomorrow following the
international break, Jose
Mourinho conducted his pre-
match press conference at
Cobham ahead of our home
game against West Bromwich
Albion, the first of 10 matches
between now and Boxing Day.
The Blues go into the contest
having enjoyed our best start
to a season, unbeaten in 17
matches across all
competitions and aware a
victory would extend our lead
over second-placed
Southampton, who play Aston
Villa on Monday, to seven
points.
With so many matches on the
horizon between now and the
festive period, Mourinho is
looking no further than the
next fixture.
I go match by match, said the
Portuguese. I know we have
seven Premier League games,
plus two Champions League
games and one in the Capital
One Cup (up until Boxing Day).
My focus is on West Brom, not
West Ham on 26 December,
Tottenham or Stoke. We are
going to play just thinking
about West Brom, playing with
the team we think is the best
team.
I expect to win but I expect a
very difficult match. I always
expect to win, we go into
every game thinking that but
they have a good team. If you
look at our results 2-1
against Liverpool, 2-1 against
QPR, 1-1 against Manchester
United - its difficult to get a
different type of scoreline so I
expect a tight match. They
know they can get a result
against us because theyve
done it in the past.
The distance between
ourselves and our opponents
can increase or decrease
tomorrow, but I try to put my
teams qualities in front of our
next opponents qualities and
we work based on this. Im
not thinking about being
champions, finishing second
or finishing third, Im just
thinking about winning
against West Brom, nothing
else. We want three points so
lets see if we can do it.
Both Andre Schurrle and Cesc
Fabregas had to withdraw
from their respective
international squads prior to
the recent round of fixtures,
but the manager had positive
news regarding the availability
of the two players when he
provided an injury update.
'Nathan Ake is injured, he hurt
his hamstring with the (Dutch
Under-21) national team and
will be out for a few weeks,'
said the manager.
'Diego Costa is totally
recovered, the same as
Schurrle. Fabregas trained
with the team today but it was
a very simple session. We will
make a decision and hopefully
he can play because its an
important game for us.
'Ramires can play, it's a bit like
the Liverpool game in that hes
not in very good condition,
but hes improving so he can
play.'
John Mikel Obi arrived back at
Cobham later than the rest of
the players who had been
away on international duty,
with Nigeria involved in an
Africa Cup of Nations
qualifying match on
Wednesday.
Mourinho has spoken in
recent weeks about the
midfielder playing for the
Blues despite being injured,
and he will be assessed at
Cobham today.
Diego Costa, scorer of the
winning goal in our 2-1
victory at Liverpool a fortnight
ago, is expected to lead the
line against Alan Irvines side.
The striker, along with some
of the other players not
involved in internationals, was
given an extended break
following the game at Anfield,
and Mourinho believes he is
now in a good place following
his recent injury troubles.
Diego has four yellow cards,
but am I going to protect him
from any game? No way, he
plays, said the Portuguese.
When he gets the fifth he gets
the fifth. The most important
game is West Brom. After that
the most important game is
Sunderland. With Diego we
have to go match by match
but we feel and he feels, with
the way hes expressing
himself in training, that his
mind is free of fear, hes good.
Now we are going to have a
period which is new to him.
The Christmas period for those
players doing it for the first
time in their career is more
difficult. The English players, or
players who have been here
for many years, are physically
and mentally adapted to cope
with the incredible marathon
of football we have to face.
In the past two weeks hes
had a little holiday, which was
spent with a Chelsea physio,
so he was working many
hours per day. Hes going in
the right direction and at the
moment we feel hes free from
the old injury.
The Blues boss has often
spoke about his fondness for
the busy calendar over
Christmas in England, but
while its certainly a period he
enjoys from a personal point
of view, he acknowledges the
impact so many matches can
have on the players.
Its a different phase, yes, but
it doesnt mean we can train
more. In fact, the number of
matches is so high that the
days in between games are so
few it doesnt improve our
training programme, but we
know what we have and the
good thing in England is its
the same for everyone, he
explained.
When you go to the second
part of the season and some
English teams are hopefully in
the Champions League and
Europa League, these teams
will pay the consequence of
such a different winter
compared to other countries.
Its something I love, its very
difficult for me but especially
for the players and their
bodies, but its a beautiful
period. I look forward to the
marathon Christmas period.
Such an impressive sequence
of results over the first part of
the campaign has seen us top
the Premier League table and
our Champions League group,
as well as reaching the
quarter-finals of the Capital
One Cup.
The importance of building on
our wonderful early-season
form cant be understated,
however, and the manager
has total confidence his
players possess the mental
strength to kick on.
There will be no complacency,
thats for sure, he said. If we
lose matches, and I believe we
will, it wont be due to
complacency, it will be
because football is football.
Against Maribor we lost two
points but it wasnt because of
complacency, it was football.
Their goalkeeper was man of
the match and we missed so
many chances, but the team
was ready, the team played
well, especially in the second
half.
When you lose points in the
Premier League its because
the opponent was better than
you, not because of
complacency