José Mourinho praised his “phenomenal” players after a half-time team-talk with “too many peeps” inspired Chelsea to a victory at Leicester City that leaves them on the brink of claiming their first Premier League title in five years.
Despite trailing to Marc Albrighton’s first-half goal, Chelsea moved 13 points clear at the top of the table after Didier Drogba, John Terry and Ramires scored after the interval to leave Mourinho’s side needing a win against Crystal Palace on Sunday to be crowned champions.
The Chelsea manager warned the club’s supporters against any complacency before Palace’s visit to Stamford Bridge, but the title is now within touching distance and Mourinho was full of praise for the way his players have “destroyed opponents” in the month of April, when he sensed that others were expecting the team to falter.
“It’s fantastic because I know April is the month where everybody was waiting for Chelsea to slip, was waiting for Chelsea to lose points, lose one game, lose and draw, take this title race to the last couple of matches,” he said.
“But it was exactly in this month – a month with problems, a month without Diego Costa, without Loïc Rémy, with Drogba and Oscar playing striker, no other solutions, just this small group of players we have – where we were phenomenal.
“We were tactically phenomenal, team spirit, the team ethic, the way we defended, the way we were clinical with our goals, the stability we showed in every game. Everyone expected us to drop points against Arsenal and Manchester United but April was the month that we destroyed opponents. We won every game except the draw against Arsenal, so I’m very pleased. Now we just need three more points.”
Asked whether he could almost touch the Premier League trophy, Mourinho said: “Yeah, but I cannot touch, we need to win. So I would say we need three points to be completely safe. But I think we all had in our minds to try and do it at Stamford Bridge. I think today the great motivation was exactly that, to bring the title to Stamford Bridge, which we were able to do.
“But I think Stamford Bridge … they can’t celebrate yet. If they want to celebrate, they have to celebrate the Capital One Cup. On Sunday I hope they go there not to celebrate, I hope they go there to play the match with us, to push the team. That is the spirit we have in our camp.
“The boys in the dressing room are happy not because they won the title, they’re happy because they won one more game and because they are one step closer. But that must be the spirit for Sunday. People have to walk to Stamford Bridge not celebrating the title, people have to walk ready to play against Crystal Palace.”
This was an evening when Chelsea’s old guard once again demonstrated their worth. Petr Cech, making a rare start, produced a superb save to deny Paul Konchesky shortly before Albrighton gave Leicester the lead in first-half injury-time, while Drogba and Terry got the goals that turned the match in Chelsea’s favour in the second half before Ramires added a glorious third.
“The old and the young,” Mourinho said. “Petr Cech, great performance, John, Didier, Branislav [Ivanovic], but other giants on the pitch – Nemanja Matic, Cesc Fàbregas, Ramires. A great team.”
Terry admitted that Mourinho gave the players a “telling off at half-time” following an opening 45 minutes in which Chelsea struggled to play with any fluency and failed to register a shot on target, but the Portuguese declined to go into detail about what he said in the dressing room. “If I tell you on television what I said it will be ‘peep, peep, peep’. Too many peeps.”
In the end there was no shortage of entertainment on a night when the travelling supporters embraced the criticism of their team’s style of play by sarcastically chanting “Boring, boring Chelsea” in the second half.
“Tonight was not boring for me,” Mourinho said. “To be losing at half-time is not boring – it is pressure. The way we played in the second half, against probably the best team we have played in the last month, was fantastic.
“It was a difficult first half, a very good team, very well organised defensively, pressing very well, closing spaces, very aggressive in the way they play with the ball. In the first half they were a team defending well, trying to score a goal on the counterattack, which they did.
“In the second half, obviously, the early goal is important but after that we were completely in control. We played so, so well and so fluid, and the goal had to arrive sooner or late. So I think the boys did fantastic.”