Jose Mourinho has accused Antonio Conte of humiliating Manchester
United with his touchline behaviour during Chelsea’s 4-0 victory on
Sunday.
Mourinho, who was facing the Blues for the first time since parting
ways with the club last season, was humbled on his return to Stamford
Bridge as Chelsea ran riot in front of their home support.
Pedro opened the scoring for the hosts after just 31 seconds, before
Gary Cahill and Eden Hazard put Chelsea firmly in control of the
match. However, it was N’Golo Kante’s fourth goal – and the manner of
Conte’s typically wild celebrations that followed – to which Mourinho
took exception.
At the final whistle the Portuguese shook
hands with Conte before appearing to attack the Italian for his
celebrations in the wake of Kante’s strike. “It’s my opinion, but you do
it at 1-0 – not at 4-0,’ Mourinho seemed to tell Conte in
Italian. ‘That’s humiliation for us.’
However, in his post-match interview,
Mourinho refused to confirm what exactly he had said to Conte and
insisted the matter was solely between the two managers. ‘It was with
Antonio, not with you,’ Mourinho told Sky Sports. ‘Of course not… I was speaking with Antonio, not with you. I am sorry.’
The controversial incident capped a
miserable day for the United manager, who watched Pedro put the hosts
ahead inside 31 seconds. Cahill was allowed to add a soft second from
inside the six-yard box soon after, before Hazard grabbed a goal his
performance deserved with a fine finish from 14 yards out. The Belgium
international then set up Kante for Chelsea’s fourth – sparking Conte
into a typically frenetic celebration with his technical staff on the
touchline.
Mourinho admitted his side paid a heavy
price for early individual mistakes and, as a result, were picked off on
the counter-attack in the second half. “We made incredible defensive
mistakes,’ he said. ‘Individual defensive mistakes and you pay for that.
Then if you equalise after the 1-0 or if you score the 2-1 after the
2-0 you have a big chance because in terms of football the team was
quite comfortable.
“We knew we were going to have space with
our full-backs because of the way they play. We did that in the second
half and we played with Marcus Rashford through the middle to create
more mobility from Zlatan’s position.
“We played with just two midfield players
and we had no problems at all and we had control of the game. But the
control is a bit dangerous because Chelsea have great players on the
counter-attack who are just waiting for that.”
Despite the manner of his side’s defeat,
Mourinho remained optimistic over United’s chances of success this
season and pointed to, what he perceives to be, a favourable run of
upcoming league fixtures.
“In terms of points it is zero points,’ he
said. ‘When you lose 1-0 or 4-0 you lose three points, you don’t lose
four, five or six points. You lose three points. “We are six points
from the top of the league and we are I think maybe three or four from
the top four. We now need to win matches. We had a week with two matches
away to two candidates – Liverpool and Chelsea – and now other teams
from the top five have to play between themselves.
“We need to win our matches which are not
easy but we play Burnley, we play Swansea, we play West Ham and we need
to win matches to close the gap. After these last three matches in the
league we have two draws and one defeat. We made two points out of nine.
Now what we need is points.”
Mourinho will be hoping to see his side
bounce back at the first time of asking when United face cross-city
rivals Manchester City in the League Cup on Wednesday evening. Chelsea,
meanwhile, are also in League Cup action that night as they travel
across London to face West Ham.
