Mourinho Blasts Chelsea Players. Gives Up Tittle Hopes For Real

Jose Mourinho’s frustration clearly got to the Chelsea boss when he confronted a young ballboy who was slow to give the ball back near the end of the Blues infamous 0-1 loss to Crystal Palace Saturday.

The Portuguese said he was trying to avoid an incident similar to when Eden Hazard was sent off for kicking a ballboy at Swansea last season.

‘I thought Cesar Azpilicueta was going to lose emotional control (with the ballboy) and the kids are educated to do this but if a player hits a ballboy then the person who educates them disappears and the player is in trouble for pushing or punching the kid.

‘I had a chance to get the kid and the kid was cute and I told him “you do this, one day somebody punches you”. We saw what happened with Eden.’

Mourinho’s frustration did not end with the ballboy, the self acclaimed ”special one” also laid into his big-name players for going missing in the shock 1-0 defeat at Crystal Palace — and he conceded Chelsea are out of the title race, despite hanging onto top spot after Manchester City could only draw 1-1 at Arsenal.

He had nothing but praise for defenders such as Garry Cahill and John Terry, whose 52nd-minute own-goal handed Palace their unexpected triumph.

But he tore into his attacking gems who failed dismally to light up Selhurst Park, just as they’d failed to inspire Chelsea when they crashed to defeat at Aston Villa two weeks ago.

Mourino said: ‘Clearly we have some players who because of their profile they find it difficult to perform in some profile of matches.’

‘We were missing some qualities. ‘We could have scored in the first half and had chances to equalise in the second half but even so they deserved to win.

‘The qualities we missed are the same in every match we lost except to Aston Villa (where Mourinho blamed refereeing decisions for Chelsea’s defeat).

‘You can find things in common with every match we lost this season — to Stoke City, Everton, Newcastle away and at West Brom where we dropped two points.

‘My four defenders, phenomenal performance, as always. The others I’d prefer not to analyse individually.

‘You have Terry, Ivanovic, Cahill and Azpilicueta and they perform in the sun, the rain, small pitches, big pitches, aggressive teams, possession teams. They perform every game from day one to the last day.

Then you have other players who are fantastic in some matches and disappear in other matches.
‘You can easily find what these matches have in common.’

The upshot, according to the Portuguese, is that while this may be the closest title chase for years, Chelsea aren’t in it.

Mourinho was gracious in defeat, clapping the Crystal Palace fans as he left the pitch at Selhurst Park. But he also waved goodbye — in his estimation — to Chelsea’s title aspirations.

‘Now we have lost our chance of finishing first,’ he said. ‘Now we depend too much on other results. When it depends a little it is possible. When it is a lot, it isn’t.

‘I know mathematically it is still possible. But one thing is mathematics and one thing is reality.’’

‘I don’t think it’s going to happen.’