Jose Mourinho took defeat on the chin and admitted that the best team won after Manchester City dumped Chelsea out of the FA Cup on Saturday night, but the Portuguese manager won’t have been happy with what he had seen.
Nobody expected Chelsea to win twice at the Etihad in twelve days and there was no chance of catching Manuel Pellegrini’s side off-guard as they did in the first game, when Mourinho opted to drive the bus at the home side rather than park it in front of them as many predicted, but a few things about the loss in the cup would have riled him.
John Terry was sorely missed both in terms of leadership as well as defensive stability and David Luiz is a poor deputy to the veteran skipper. The Brazilian defender was not at the races at all today and made himself a liability with his rashness, but he was no means the worst player on the park for Chelsea today.
It was far too easy for David Silva to find space in between the lines as neither Nemanja Matic nor John Obi Mikel thought it’d be necessary to cover the diminutive Spanish playmaker and Yaya Toure, who was over-powered a fortnight ago, got his revenge on the Chelsea midfield but neither of the aforementioned were quite as bad as Ramires.
Ramires had a decent start to the season and won over Chelsea fans with his work ethic following a shaky start to his Stamford Bridge career but the 26-year-old’s form has been rotten over the past couple of months and his boundless energy is no longer enough to mask his awkward touches and wayward passes. He’ll have to step it up if he wants to keep his place in the XI.
Mourinho will also be concerned that his side is overly reliant on Eden Hazard as the Belgian essentially IS the Chelsea attack, so the likes of Samuel Eto’o, Willian, Oscar, Fernando Torres and co need to be doing way more than they are currently in the games where Hazard is stifled.
However, as Mourinho says, City were the better side and thoroughly deserve their place in the FA Cup quarter-finals. Manuel Pellegrini had Chelsea’s number today and there are no excuses for Chelsea.
