Mourinho fumes as Chelsea's Drogba
wins it
tribalfooball.com - December 17, 2006
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho criticised Everton striker Andy Johnson
after their dramatic 3-2 win.
Mourinho was so incensed when Johnson tumbled over Hilario during
the opening stages of Chelsea's 3-2 win, a member of Merseyside
Police entered the technical area to tell assistant Steve Clarke to
calm his boss down.
Waving an imaginary yellow card in the air, Mourinho was adamant at
the time Johnson had dived even though TV replays, which Everton
counterpart David Moyes suggested he looked at, showed the Toffees
front-man had been shoved by Khaled Boulahrouz and would have been
felled by Hilario had he not taken evasive action.
However, Mourinho, without actually claiming Johnson had cheated,
clearly inferred that was exactly what he felt the England
international had done.
"In my country we would call him an 'intelligent' player. Here, you
are more critical," said Mourinho.
"I have been in this country for three years now, I am influenced
by your culture. It is a culture I admire. I am proud to be part of
it.
"So, when a player chases a penalty, he is not the intelligent
player I would have called him a few years ago. If I want to be
polite, I would call him a dangerous kind of opponent. You cannot
trust him and I was not happy.
"I think he felt a bit embarrassed because after that he behaved
very well."
Mourinho dismissed questions from local Merseyside media about the
incident, claiming "You are Johnson's friend, no?"
However, recalling the incident at Reading involving Stephen Hunt
which left Petr Cech with a depressed fracture of the skull earlier
this season, Moyes gave Mourinho's complaints short shrift, quickly
turning the spotlight on matchwinner Didier Drogba.
"It wasn't a penalty but it certainly wasn't a dive either,"
countered the Everton boss.
"There was a big complaint earlier in the season because a player
went into a goalkeeper, are we now saying they have to go into
them? Make your mind up.
"By acting the way he did Jose probably did inflame the situation
but then he has a 15-stone striker up there who is quite partial to
doing it himself."
The row overshadowed a sensational game in which Chelsea seemed
certain to drop more points in their quest for a title hat-trick
until they were saved by Drogba's astonishing 40-yard
matchwinner.
Six minutes after stand-in skipper Frank Lampard had pulled the
Blues level with a superb 20-yard strike, to become the most
prolific midfielder in Chelsea history, Drogba collected Andriy
Shevchenko's knock-down, then turned towards goal before letting
fly with an audacious volley that gave Tim Howard no chance.
The effort was tough luck on Everton, who led twice, initially
through a Mikel Arteta penalty, then, after Michael Ballack's
free-kick had bounced in off Howard's back, a Joseph Yobo header,
but could ultimately not close out the game.
"It was a cruel way to lose," said Moyes.
"We have conceded three goals from about 30 yards and, while we
could have done better with them all, we didn't deserve
that."
For Mourinho, it was further confirmation of his side's potential
to stay in the championship hunt despite not being at their
best.
"If you can't play great music, at least play some," said the
Chelsea boss, who refused to put a timescale on John Terry's
absence after he sat out the game with a recurrence of his back
problem.
"When other teams were having bad moments last season and things
were perfect for us, they were 12-15 points behind us.
"This season, we are having a bad moment but are much
closer
