Mourinho Has Just the League Cup Final to Think About

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has just one game to worry about at the “moment;” Sunday’s League Cup final against Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley Stadium.

Last weekend’s 1-all home draw with Burnley trimmed the west London club’s lead to five points above Manchester City in second place, but the reigning Premier League champions could bridge that gap further when they travel to Liverpool four hours before the Capital One Cup showdown.

“I just think about the moment. Only this game,” the Portuguese said in his press-conference on Friday. “It’s a final we have to play and a final we have to win.”

Jose MOurinho is All About One Moment that Doesn’t Necessarily Shape Chelsea’s Future. Image: Getty

It is ten years exactly since Jose Mourinho lifted his first League Cup- his first trophy as Chelsea manager. Chelsea recorded their fourth and last success in the Cup competition two years later, and then the ‘Special One’s’ initial spell ended seven months after.

The man chosen as Mourinho’s successor, Avram Grant, had a near perfect spell with the west London outfit, beginning with a League Cup defeat by Sunday’s opponents Spurs and ending with the Champions League final loss to Manchester United in Moscow. Grant’s Chelsea also finished second in the Premier League in 2008.

But Mourinho does not envisage any might be domino effect nor see connection between winning or losing the all-Capital final and winning or losing the English championship.

“I don’t think if we win the Cup final we will win the league, or if we lose it we will lose the league,” he opined.

“It’s just a game we have to play and after that the Cup talk is over. If we go home with the Cup and the medal, perfect. But no consequences- we just carry on. There is no time to think about consequences.”

Chelsea’s hopes of completing a first English quadruple was ended by Bradford City in the fourth round of FA Cup on 24 January, but the 52-year-old says that ouster does not imply Chelsea took the FA Cup with levity.

“I respect every competition,” Mourinho said. “It would be easy to say we didn’t take FA Cup seriously because we lost against Bradford but we take every competition seriously.

“Probably lots of teams have followed us since 2005 when we took the League Cup as a real competition, as a real challenge, and we were trying to reach finals and trying to win.

“Liverpool (losing finalists in 2005) and us gave it everything in the semi-final. It is a big competition.”

Mauricio Pochettino has not issued any injury concern following Tottenham’s defeat by Fiorentina in the last 32 of the Europa League on Thursday. Chelsea were last in action on Saturday, but Mourinho does not think his team will have a physical advantage over their London rivals because he expects several changes from the squad which played the extra match.

“I don’t think they will play with the team they played yesterday,” he said. “They will play with a couple of those players, no more than that, so I don’t think the physical part is in question.”

Mourinho reported no fresh injury, with only John Mikel Obi and the suspended Nemanja Matic ruled out this weekend; the former through knee injury and the latter serving the first of a two-match ban.

by Greenstarnetwork admin..