Chelsea's Mourinho sees Lampard meet
Diarra axing
tribalfooball.com - January 06, 2007
Chelsea thumped Macclesfield 6-1 to move into the fourth round of
the FA Cup.
Frank Lampard struck a hat-trick, but was only played after Blues
boss Jose Mourinho dropped Lassana Diarra for arriving late.
Mourinho declared: "Frank Lampard should not have been playing, he
should have been on the bench because I like to always have some
ammunition on there in case things are not going very well.
"But Lassana Diarra was 40 minutes late for the team meeting. The
meeting was set for 11.30am and he arrived at 12.10pm.
"The meeting is for the people who are playing and I decided to
play Lampard and not youngster Michael Woods because it would have
been too much for him to start a game with that responsibility. So
I started with Lamps and in the first half he was absolutely
crucial for us."
Lampard put Chelsea in front in the 16th minute from close range
but Coca-Cola League Two side Macclesfield stunned the champions
when a mistake by Ricardo Carvalho allowed John Murphy to fire an
equaliser five minutes before the break.
But Lampard put Chelsea in front within a minute and when
Macclesfield keeper Tommy Lee was red-carded for controversially
bringing down Andriy Shevchenko. Lampard converted the spot-kick
for his 12th goal of the season.
The dismissal was a turning point in the game as Town did not
possess a reserve goalkeeper on the bench so captain and defender
David Morley went in goal.
But Chelsea completed a rout with further strikes from Shaun
Wright-Phillips, Mikel Jon Obi and Carvalho.
Mourinho said: "It was a game we had to win because we have
ambition in the competition.
"We had to win because we are a team of professionals at a high
level and normally Macclesfield are not good enough to beat
us.
"With the score 2-1 in the first half, the game is open and we knew
if we scored the third goal, the game would be over.
"When we scored the third goal and they lost the keeper at the same
time and the game was over."
Shevchenko looked to have slipped before colliding with Lee for the
spot-kick and Mourinho defended the Ukrainian from suggestions that
he may have dived.
Mourinho added: "I don't think he dived. It looked a penalty. I
feel sorry that it was a red card but it is the law for the
game.
"The referee cannot say 'this is a rich team, this is a poor team,
this is a top player, this is a boy'. The rule in the game is 22
players and all of them are the same.
"If my keeper does that it is a red card, so if their keeper does
it, it is a red card. It was not good because the game was over but
it is the law. He had to go but I felt sorry for him."
