Chelsea began the post-Jose Mourinho era with a 3-1 victory over Sunderland at Stamford Bridge to ease away from the Premier League’s bottom three on Saturday while Leicester City moved five points clear at the top.
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Terry admitted that some clubs would have blamed the players and not Mourinho for their precipitous decline, but he assured supporters that the Chelsea squad will take responsibility for turning their form around under interim manager Guus Hiddink.
“Keep promoting what we did in the last half an hour (at Chelsea), keep showing the players what they achieved in the last half hour and say “Half an hour’s all right but it’s 90 minutes you’ve got to do this for”, said Allardyce.
The experienced Dutch coach, 69, returns to a role he previously performed in 2009, when he led Chelsea to glory in the FA Cup.
Skipper John Terry had claimed player power had not played a part in the decision to displace Mourinho but Fabregas’ and Costa’s names were booed when they were read out prior to kick-off – Hazard only escaping the ire as he was absent through injury.
“I’m trying to think of the last time it happened in this country”.
“During his career, Jose has sometimes chosen to leave a club, but only at Chelsea has the club decided that he should leave”.
“Because of his love of football, you will see Jose at football grounds working and supporting friends”, the statement added.
“I’ll be happy to park this game and go forward”.
When asked whether it was important to get the fans back on side, Mourinho told the club’s official website: “Absolutely and rightly so as well”. It’s been a hard few days for everybody.
I feel the way I feelThe first half they played well in general.
“Firstly, because there will be big clubs that want him and secondly because I think he’s a guy who needs and wants football and he’s not the sort of guy who’s going to spend eight months at home doing nothing”. I thought we saw the game out fairly comfortably’.
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The match unfurled amid tension, as Chelsea’s fans took out their anger over Mourinho’s dismissal on their own players, and there was also a bilious atmosphere at Old Trafford, where Norwich won 2-1. I know that our job, as players, is to focus on getting results on the pitch.
