The Football Association has conceded that the Wembley pitch was below standard for the Community Shield on Sunday. He admitted that Arsenal could win the PL title this season as he brushed off questions about Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger never beating him in 13 previous encounters in the dugout. Recently, one of the narratives has been about Arsene Wenger’s record against Jose Mourinho and the fact Arsenal hadn’t scored against a Mourinho side since 2007.
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Chelsea won the title in May with a commanding lead of eight points over second-placed Manchester City and they are the favourites to retain the trophy in the new season which kicks off on Saturday.
“I must honestly say that (beating Mourinho) didn’t play on my mind at all”. In any case it is good to have broken the run against Chelsea and regain some ascendancy.
I believe today we defended because maybe it was a bit of a psychological hurdle, Chelsea, in the head of my players.
In response to Mourinho’s assertion, Wenger denied snubbing his counterpart, saying: ‘I shook a few hands after the game, but there’s nothing special there.
Cahill didn’t appear to be too concerned over the defeat, instead has focused his mind-set on Chelsea’s final pre-season fixture against Fiorentina, explaining that “We’re confident, we have a good squad and another game on Wednesday”.
But class centre-halves are becoming harder and harder to find and it seems the players who could do the job, like Mats Hummels (Germany) and Ezequiel Garay (Argentina), simply don’t want to come to the Premier League.
The 19-year-old started for Chelsea in matches against Liverpool and West Bromwich Albion at the end of last season, but he was heavily criticised by Mourinho following a post-season game in Australia.
“They feel to score against him they have to score the flawless goal”. I’m not an office man and for me, as a coach, I think that the players they must give confidence for me to say “Let’s go”. “It is quite frustrating for a manager to be pushed in his technical area and to see the opposite manager stay in his position, not being punished, so I agree totally with that”.
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They refused to shake each other’s hand following Arsenal’s 1-0 victory at Wembley on Sunday, but the Premier League will be keen to make sure that the managers remain cordial at the very minimum when they meet on Tuesday. He also made the decision to drop Cesc Fabregas into a deeper midfield role alongside Nemanja Matic in an attempt to quash Arsenal’s risky counter attacks, and moved Hazard, who had barely featured in the first half, into a more central role behind the striker.
