How I Met Your Mom :)

Thu, 14th Dec 2006

Chelsea’s victory in our in-hand game over Newcastle closes the gap to five points behind leaders Manchester United and gives us five months of the season to play catch-up and overtake.

But Jose Mourinho explains that he doesn’t see the gap as five points.

"I see it as two points because three points is Chelsea v Man United. It’s a game that depends on us.

"It’s important to play against Man United at Stamford Bridge in April with two to three more points than them. That’s the situation."

Mourinho refused to be disappointed by his team’s below par performance against injury-ravaged Newcastle, instead blaming the visitors’ defensive approach.

"The easiest thing in football is defence and the most difficult thing is to play to win against a very defensive team.

"They have only one player in attack but that player can kill you in transition because he is very, very fast.

"We tried to attack but all the ways to the goal were closed. It was difficult to build, difficult to score and always with the danger behind you."

The manager refused to accept that against Newcastle’s weakened side, the champions should have been more imposing.

"The problem with players out is not the number of players out, it’s the quality of players out.

"Thirteen players out is easy to say but Chelsea is playing for two months without the best goalkeeper in the world and for five months without Joe Cole. That’s major blows! I would change Petr Cech injury for five or six minor players."

However it was Newcastle’s frailty that decided his starting line-up, giving rare starts for Salomon Kalou and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

"Today Drogba was on the bench because he was injured but with Salomon and Robben you get different qualities.

"They (Newcastle) had a young boy playing right-back and playing with a winger facing would, we thought, create some problems.

"We know too that Baba is not the fastest left-back, so we thought we could create problems there too."

Mourinho revealed his half-time intention was to substitute Geremi and play Essien at right back but Carvalho’s sore ankle changed his plans.

"He could have played the second-half but I made that decision to protect him."

In the event, Claude Makelele and Didier Drogba replaced Carvalho and Wright-Phillips, with Essien moving into central defence.

"The second-half changes we made to try to give more in attack but at the same time the defence was a bit more fragile because Essien is not a central defender.

"The objective was for him to step up and go more into midfield," explained Mourinho.

"If the result was positive for us at half-time, I wouldn’t play Drogba. But I felt we needed him at the time, not just tactically but also mentally.

"The goal is important especially when you are the champions hitting the post and you need somebody with a little bit of luck putting the ball in the net.

"His attitude in the game, the way he works for the team and the emotion he brings to the team was very important for us.

"I cannot say he is the best in the world because strikers depend on goals and goals are in moments, so maybe now is his moment. And now he is absolutely top."

Midway through the second-half, with the game still goallesss, Mourinho took the risk of replacing Geremi with another attacking player, Andriy Shevchenko, and we played with only three players at the back and four up front.

"It was a big risk because of Martins pace but when we scored the goal, we had to adapt again to close the door," said Mourinho.

Having seen Robben’s shot late in the game which could have put us two up, rebound off the post, Mourinho declared:

"I think it is not the moment where we are with the gods. Normally a shot from that side with the left foot hits the post and goes in.

"No doubts we deserved the three points but also no doubts we should play better. But in difficult moments, the game gets emotional and the points are the most important thing."