Herd it all: Mourinho watched his side slip to their first defeat of the season
The football lexicon has a new, extraordinary, entry from Jose Moo-rinho.
The
man who invented the “park the bus” phrase to denote a totally
defensive approach, has added an agricultural twist to spoiling tactics
which are disrupting Chelsea’s title chase.
As he moaned about
ball boys, the Geordie crowd not throwing the ball back quickly, and
strong-arm United’s back-four resistance, it was pointed out he would
do exactly the same a goal up and with six minutes of stoppage time to
go.
His bizarre reply? “With balls? No. With anything? You may as well put a cow in the middle of the pitch, walking.
“And then stop the game because there was a cow.”
Udderly ridiculous? Or a fair analogy of the lengths rivals are going to stop the usually brilliant Blues? The Chelsea boss had a beef with Newcastle’s frustrate-then-counter-attack plan.
But after Sunderland showed how by stifling their way to a 0-0 draw eight days previously, Newcastle took that blue-print and added ruthless finishing.
The
title race is wider open after two second-half goals from Papiss Cisse.
Sub Didier Drogba came on, was Chelsea’s biggest threat and pulled one
back. In pictures: Newcastle vs Chelsea VIEW GALLERY
The Blues had 16 minutes of play against 10 men to find an equaliser when Steven Taylor picked up a second yellow card.
But
they failed to exploit 21-year-old third-choice keeper Jak Alnwick, on
at half-time because of injury to Rob Elliot, who had six senior
appearances for Gateshead to his name.
So, gone is their hope of
being invincible this season. They “only” equal a club record of 23
games unbeaten, and match the previous best of 14 unbeaten at the start
of a season in the league.
After the moaning, there was defiance
and confidence from Mourinho, as he played all the characters in his
wonderfully belligerent post-match act.
When it was pointed out
his men had not had a bad start to the season despite this hiccup, he
said: “Yes. Better than anyone else. And of course I will back them to
bounce back. We are top of the league.
“For people like me who
have been in football for so long you have to accept this anomaly. To
come here and be better than our opponents and lose, that is football.
“Nobody
has done better than us. Everyone would like to be in our position. So
we are more than fine. We are better than anybody else.”
How much
better? “I don’t say my team is the best, I say my team is top of the
league and at this moment nobody has the same points we have.
“Because of that at the moment we’re the best team in the Premier League.”
Action Images
Hitman: Cisse scored both Newcastle goals
Surely losing the unbeaten run hurt? He added: “The players are not
jumping with happiness but they are accepting the defeat as part of the
game. They tried everything, were unlucky and are not happy with that,
but that is football.”
Cisse has seven goals this season after surgery in April to a dislocated knee – an amazing comeback. The Newcastle striker, who came on at half-time, said: “The gaffer just said score a goal. It’s very, very good to play at St James’ Park.
“I feel fit. The injury isn’t difficult to manage, I just need to do my gym work and I do it all the time. I am OK.
“The gaffer made the decision to put me on the bench. I don’t know why.
“I’m
confident I will fully recover. I’m not young, I’m 29. I just wait for
my time and even if it’s just five minutes I’ll try to do well for those
five minutes.” Toon have tough games ahead including Arsenal next week, Spurs away in the cup and Sunderland at home.
As Mourinho discovered, Newcastle will not be cowed.
![Time for a breakup? Saying "it's not you, it's I" should help.](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sTXyO6zLuQRAQTyUHZzi7e07N7SCuweFH0rHEN9ItVHdmQi70D_MiIoamYD-cGGlkRMkA2m8VN9DStjR0G8PT9qzoqZBodMUlxqw4wL2QSurWkgRw1UqDkHFdo-08HKd2D1cjAFY01GDwn9PPbXg4NyGO5JH8cyk_t8eA=s0-d "Time for a breakup? Saying "it's not you, it's I\" should help.")
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