José Mourinho is to grant his Chelsea squad a Christmas party as a reward for their irrepressible form so far this season, having cancelled the event last year in the wake of a League Cup loss at Sunderland.
The leaders return to Wearside on Saturday hoping to extend their advantage at the top to nine points as the two teams directly below them, Southampton and Manchester City, meet on Sunday.
The decision to abandon last year’s festive celebration, which had initially been scheduled to be held just 24 hours after the cup tie last December, had been born of concerns over the team’s form with the loss to Gus Poyet’s team considered surprising given they were bottom of the league at the time.
Yet Mourinho cited his players’ improved attitude and professionalism in training and preparation as justification for the club to provide an event – albeit geared more towards families – this time round. “Probably, because of that, the club is preparing a little Christmas party for them and their families,” said the Portuguese. “Maybe because their families also deserve it. For good things, we’ll find the time. The traditional hospital visits and charity stuff, we also have time for that. And because this is a squad with lots of kids – young guys with kids from a couple of weeks to 10 years old – I think it will be good for them.”
Chelsea, who have won their past nine league visits to the Stadium of Light stretching back to 2003, had booked a table at the Mayfair restaurant Novikov last year with the squad then expected to move on to a nightclub, Libertine, later on the evening of 18 December. Yet the loss to Sunderland, who had equalised after 88 minutes and won the tie in the last few seconds of extra time, prompted a rethink. The event was eventually postponed so the players could spend the day relaxing with their families – some travelled abroad to visit them – before a hectic schedule that included five games in 16 days.
Ashley Cole was subsequently photographed on the night of the original planned party at Libertine, where he was apparently joined by his team-mates Ryan Bertrand and André Schürrle. “There are Christmas parties and ‘Christmas parties’,” said Mourinho. “This one I think the families deserve and the boys are very happy to be with their families. My kids are 14 and 18. I don’t think they belong at this [kind of] party. But I think I have to go to say a couple of words and after that, to leave the players there with their families and kids.” So keen is Mourinho to preserve his squad’s balance and excellent team spirit that he is hopeful the January transfer window will not provoke disruption of any kind, either with outgoing or incoming moves.
The likes of Petr Cech, Schürrle, Mikel John Obi and Mohamed Salah have only enjoyed bit-part roles to date this term and might have been expected to agitate for moves, but the club will resist any sales and will only enter the market if injuries leave them depleted in certain areas of the squad.
“Hopefully we are the same for January,” added Mourinho. “That, for me, is the perfect situation. I don’t want people to leave. I don’t want people to come in. We started our project this way, and I’d like to go [with the same personnel] until the end.
“If other teams do it in January, good for them. No problem for me. It will not be something I will use by saying: ‘These guys spend £30m more’.They spend what they want and what they can. Hopefully everything goes OK and we have no emergency needs for January.”