“When you play against a team that has shown to be stronger than you for a lot of the season – because 25 points is a big difference – you have to think with your brain and your head because otherwise you finish with a bad loss and that’s not good for the players”, Conte added.
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Pressure has unquestionably been growing on the Chelsea boss, following consecutive defeats to Manchester United and Manchester City.
“I’m not so stupid to play open against City and lose three or four to nil”.
Asked ahead of Wednesday’s return fixture at the Etihad Stadium if City were at the same level as La Liga leaders Barca, Guardiola said: “No”.
‘Honestly, I know what you are writing as a effect of yesterday, ‘ Mourinho said after Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Crystal Palace on Monday evening.
“We need to win to have more freedom on the pitch and we need to stay together because it is a bad period but all the players, staff and fans need to know that we are all together”. That team dominated the last decade, 15 to 20 years with different managers, different players. A long time means many, many years.
“We didn’t concede one shot on target, we create enough chances to win, and I think we made an wonderful performance because (it) is against Chelsea, the last champion”.
Just like after Arsenal’s error-strewn 3-1 loss at Swansea in late January, Cech fronted up on Twitter to own up to his game-changing mistakes against Brighton. Obviously we could have done better but these are not small games. After success at Wembley, and with no FA Cup or Premier League to worry about, Pellegrini put all his eggs for the season in the Champions League basket.
Ironically, it could be the other record, the earliest title win which hampers that.
“It’s 3-1, because it’s Madrid”. If they were to do that then there’s no counting them out of winning the Champions League.
“If we keep going like this we have a very good chance”, said Aguero.
English referees chief Mike Riley was at City’s training ground for discussions with director of football Txiki Begiristain on Tuesday, following Guardiola’s complaints that players should be more effectively protected from unsafe challenges. Following the disappointment against Wigan, it’s now a situation where a treble is certainly not out of the question. Yet the manager also warned his team they can not afford the kind of tackle that caused Fabian Delph’s sending off in the FA Cup defeat at Wigan or Oleksandr Zinchenko’s on Victor Moses in Sunday’s win over Chelsea, which drew a yellow card.
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City were fortunate to escape moments later, though, when Oleksandr Zinchenko wiped out Victor Moses with a wild lunge that could easily have drawn a red rather than a yellow card from referee Michael Oliver.
