Chelsea and Jose Mourinho were almost forced into a late change of tactics against Manchester United, having prepared all week to deal with man mountain Marouane Fellaini only to be told be a hotel doorman that he wasn’t playing.
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The member of staff at the hotel saw who he believed to be the Belgian midfielder pick up some match tickets from Eden Hazard, leading him to believe he wouldn’t be playing and alerted the Blues boss.
Mourinho had trained his side all week to deal with the imposing player, using six foot four youngster Ruben Loftus-Cheek to play as him in training and drafting Kurt Zouma in to the team to keep tabs on him.
Quoted in The Daily Mail, the Chelsea boss relayed his conversation with the doorman…
“Fellaini doesn’t play because he was here to get tickets for the game from Eden Hazard. He was dressed in jeans, this and that’.
“(It) didn’t smell well for me. I go to Google and I put ‘Fellaini brother’. Images,
“So I go with the pictures to the doorman. I say ‘hey, this one or this one?’ And he looks ‘this one’. ‘He’s the brother'”
According to Mourinho, Marouane Fellaini’s twin brother, Mansour, has posed for photos with fans as Marouane. Despite this, the midfielder did start the game, but couldn’t prevent a 1-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge.
The win means it is possible for Chelsea to clinch the Premier League title as early as 29th April, should they beat Leicester and Arsenal in their next two fixtures.