José Mourinho claimed he would “sleep until midday” after his Chelsea “warriors” emerged from a frantic and breathtaking derby at West Ham with their five-point lead at the top of the Premier League intact.
A first-half goal from Eden Hazard, which the home side claimed had been offside, proved decisive though the leaders were forced to defend desperately at times as West Ham tore into them for long periods. Chelsea appeared to miss the suspended Nemanja Matic at times, only for Mourinho to claim the Serb midfielder had injured himself while celebrating Sunday’s Capital One Cup win at Wembley and would not have been able to play at the Boleyn Ground.
“This wasn’t the best game to play after that final, after all the tension, pressure and emotion of Wembley,” said Mourinho. “It was really difficult, with the emotion and tempo so high, but the players were so fantastic in their commitment and positive aggression. West Ham are the best team playing the way they play, no doubts about it, so to cope with that and adapt defensively … the players gave everything. When you don’t kill off a game like that you are in permanent danger so, in the end, it was a great victory for us. But I want to sleep tomorrow until midday. It would have been easy to have lost two points here.”
The contest ended up showcasing just how far this Chelsea side have come in the past year. Mourinho’s charges had succumbed at Aston Villa and Crystal Palace 12 months ago, a soft underbelly and lack of ruthlessness exploited by opponents struggling at the other end of the table, but here they prevailed despite West Ham’s frenetic pressure. Asked how things had improved, the manager said: “First of all the quality of our game. Not today but during the season, what kept us top of the league since day one has been the quality of our football.
“Sometimes recently we have lost a little bit of what had brought us to this position, but we scored a goal of quality today, and might have scored another. We are based on fantastic football still. But when good football is not enough, we fight, we suffer together and we cope with difficult moments. And we have added players of a certain profile, people like [Kurt] Zouma and Diego Costa who fit in this profile of good warriors.”
Sam Allardyce complained that Hazard’s winner had been offside, with West Ham frustration at the performance of the referee Andre Marriner heightened by suggestions John Terry might have accrued a second yellow for a body-check on Cheikhou Kouyaté while penalty appeals were waved away when Gary Cahill blocked a shot in the area with an arm. “The goal was offside,” said the manager. “Kevin Nolan was given offside at Old Trafford when we scored to make it 2-2 and there was half an inch of his nose offside. There were about six inches of Hazard’s body offside today, so that’s disappointing. But we created so many chances against Chelsea, something that is difficult to do, so we can be proud of the performance.”
Matic will be available for next Wednesday’s Champions League knockout tie against Paris St-Germain but despite sitting out Sunday’s cup final for the first game of his two-match ban, still managed to injure himself in the post-match celebrations. “Matic is injured and he got an injury celebrating the cup,” Mourinho claimed. “I’m not kidding. It’s not a big injury, but today he couldn’t have played. He twisted his ankle. If he had not been suspended, he could not have played today. It was out on the pitch with his team-mates at the time. He had shin-pads on, but he didn’t have tape on.”