Mourinho conceded his team’s hopes of winning the Premier League were effectively over after Saturday’s defeat at Crystal Palace, his first by a newly promoted club and a result that handed the initiative to Liverpool and Manchester City in the title race
Browsing: Jose Mourinho
Mikel still has three years left on his contract at Stamford Bridge but could be allowed to leave with the abundance of talent in midfield at Chelsea and Mourinho hoping to raise funds to sign a world class striker in the summer
A second successive away loss saw Mourinho admit his hopes of a third Premier League title are over with six matches to go
In a bid to heed UEFA’s Financial Fair Play guidelines and to rein in Chelsea’s ever expanding wage bill, Mourinho will seek to cut back numbers in his playing staff and will hope to garner decent sums for a number of those he is looking cash-in on
And Delph added to Jose Mourinho’s woe by finding an improvised finish to start and end an impressive move by Villa
Mourinho has his heart set on making it to the semis for the eighth time in 10 seasons, and to become the first manager to win the Champions League with three different clubs
It was also gathered that the Blues manager, Jose Mourinho, is expected to allow Mikel to leave the club, which could pave the way for Imbula’s arrival.
Both managers named strong teams for the heavyweight fifth-round clash, but hosts City dominated from the off
The visitors, ahead through Branislav Ivanovic’s first-half goal, had failed to impose themselves after the interval and creaked through the latter stages as tempers frayed. Ivanovic was booked for berating an assistant referee and had to be calmed down by his goalkeeper, Petr Cech, with other players squabbling among themselves. Chelsea failed to recover composure and eventually cracked, with Victor Anichebe securing a point which hoisted Albion above the relegation cut-off
Chelsea were poised to move four points clear at the top of the table on the back of defender Branislav Ivanovic’s injury-time strike in the first half at The Hawthorns
Jose Mourinho had labelled Chelsea ‘the small-horse’ in a three-horse title race
More damagingly, the home side, with their unblemished home record to defend, were without South American firecrackers, Fernandinho and Sergio Aguero, and the bang in form French ace, Samir Nasri
The stalemate cost Chelsea the chance to go above Arsenal into second place in the table. An exasperated Mourinho did acknowledge that West Ham’s defensiveness was understandable, given their predicament in the bottom three, but said the game did not befit the Premier League
The relegation-threatened Hammers were on the back foot for long periods but Adrian produced several excellent saves to leave Jose Mourinho’s side frustrated
If Chelsea’s visit to the Etihad Stadium is the outstanding tie of the round, the draw threw up a second meeting of comparable magnitude, with Arsenal welcoming Liverpool
Mohamed Salah joins from Swiss champions, FC Basel, for a fee in the region of £11 million, which makes him the most expensive Egyptian player of all time
Ten-time winners and current Premier League pacesetters, Arsenal, were paired with Liverpool after their victories over Coventry and Bournemouth respectively
Essien had fallen down the pecking order at Stamford Bridge this season and has been linked with a move to Italy these past few weeks
The Arsenal manager expressed his surprise that Chelsea should do business with a Premier League rival, albeit one that is flagging this season, and he warned his Stamford Bridge counterpart, José Mourinho, that he could live to regret the decision in the longer term
A few things are clear: Chelsea and United are close to agreeing a £40m deal for Mata, the playmaker whom José Mourinho just does not fancy. What is indisputable is that the Spaniard can finish