They spent the whole of last term fighting off relegation.
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Even more remarkably, the Italian had steered Leicester to the top with a brand of attacking football so scintillating that he has won over pretty much every neutral fan.
Ranieri was the first managerial casualty of Roman Abramovich’s ownership and Mourinho, in October, was the first to be given a vote of confidence in the Russian’s 12 years in control.
Leicester V Chelsea – view commentary, squad, and statistics of the game live. “My focus is Leicester.” . “I still think they will make the Champions League”. The spirit was there in how they trained. So many players were leaving when Claudio left and so many were coming. Of Abramovich’s newfound patience towards his manager, he added: “He knows Jose very well and he knows only Jose in this moment can bring up the team”.
“I think in this moment it’s too easy”. Now I just want to go on vacation in Brazil. But nobody needed to tell me thank you.
“You have lots of good coaches”.
Leicester welcome back on-loan winger Nathan Dyer, who was ineligible against parent club Swansea last weekend. He refuses to ride football’s rollercoaster and settles for a steadier journey, helped by the words of poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling. “I feel embarrassed because I don’t know how to react. The balance is the truth”, he said. He is managing according to his favourite poem, Rudyard Kipling’s “If,” which advises to “dream, without making dreams your master”. If they did, they don’t treat me like this.
Mourinho has to address the problems in midfield and defence, as Chelsea’s spine has gone from irresistible to consistently weak in only a few months.
“My centre-backs at first were world champions and European Championship winners Desailly and Frank Leboeuf. I always had respect for the man”. “Gary for me was my guardian angel”.
One thing I must point out is that, despite my doubts as to whether Leicester can maintain their title challenge, there is little I would like more than to see them crowned champions.
The 5-2 crushing by Arsenal in September remains Leicester’s only loss this season.
When a top manager joins a top club and spends hundreds of millions of pounds on players, then progress should be, if not instant, then at least relatively quick. It is hard to predict a Mourinho team especially when they aren’t playing well since he keeps trying combinations of players till they hit form. We have lost – now we must show how we react’.
“When the new owner arrived he wanted to put in his own men”.
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Ivanovic has drawn the eye of Inter Milan during his recent struggles but the defender has reaffirmed his commitment to Jose Mourinho’s side, and is keen to sign a new deal when his current one expires.
