“They have players from last season who won the league, they definitely won’t be happy with what is going on at the moment so it will be hard for them but they have great quality”.
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The defending League Cup champions got themselves back into the fourth-round tie at the Britannia Stadium following Jonathan Walters’ opening goal after Loic Remy struck late on to take the game to extra time.
But they held out to a penalties, despite several being on their last legs and Shawcross evidently suffering cramp in his first game this season, and then the tension intensified in the shoot-out in front of the Boothen End.
“Honestly, do you think they are not with me?”
Mourinho now appears to be on the brink of being sacked by Chelsea, but he faced up to the media in a fiesty press conference to reject claims that his players have turned against him in typically forthright fashion.
“For me it would be a fantastic situation if the players are against me. And Thursday will be one more day like I have in the last 15 years of my life”, he said. “We go with sadness but a positive feeling”, Mourinho remarked.
Stoke’s plight deteriorated further shortly after when Phil Bardsley picked up a second booking to leave his team playing extra-time with only 10 men. “We want to play as soon as possible”, the Spaniard told Chelsea TV.
Asked how his young fringe players had handled the occasion, Wenger delivered a scathing assessment, telling Sky Sports: “It was too high for them”.
Wednesday completed victory six minutes into the second half when Barry Bannan’s free-kick found Tom Lees in acres of space at the back post and he volleyed across goal for Hutchinson to score with his knees.
Chelsea will definitely be punished for a failure to control their players after seven yellow cards were issued, including two for midfielder Nemanja Matic, who was sent off in the first half.
Although one has to say that it was a fine save from Jack Butland rather than a bad penalty from Eden Hazard, one could be forgiven for asking; did the Belgian winger’s miss just cost Jose Mourinho his job? Most importantly, the game winning save against Hazard.
“Chelsea – apart from needing to win the Premier League – need to qualify for the Champions League”.
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Ghana global Abdul Baba Rahman was handed a start in the game after coming off the bench in the defeat against West Ham United on Saturday. “But obviously, given a few of the performances against Watford, maybe other players come into my thinking as well”, Hughes said.
