Ah, Jose, Jose, Jose. What would the Premiership be without you?
After Chelsea’s thrilling 3-2 win over Everton this weekend, Mourinho came out and accused Andy Johnson of diving under pressure from Khalid Boulharouz,
“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.”
Not even taking into account that Boulharouz demonstrated his comical tackling technique again throughout the entire match, there’s a pretty easy comeback here. Luckily, David Moyes saved us the trouble,
“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.”
Anyone sits by and says nothing while Robben and Drogba are ‘intelligent’ every week the latter even admitting it) has no credibility in critcising others (again). We’ve also pointed out in the past that just because there is no contact when a player goes flying doesn’t mean it’s not a foul or that he’s diving. If someone came lunging at your knees studs up, wouldn’t you get out of the way? Like Moyes said, if Stephen Hunt had lept over Peter Cech would Mourinho then call him a diver, too? Everton have filed a complaint and PFA Chief Peter Taylor isn’t too happy either.
Video of the incident is below, including Mourinho doing his song and dance on the sideline. What it doesn’t show is Moyes later screaming “Look at the video” to Jose and gesturing towards the monitor. Jose, of course, declines to do so.
We’re guessing it’s all part of the act to make Chelsea feel hard done by again, help build Boulharouz’ confidence, siege mentality etc. But it’s getting embarassing.