Etihad derailment leaves Mourinho more morose

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho cut a frustrated figure as he weathered questions about his side's bruising 3-0 loss to Premier League title rival Manchester City on Sunday.

Ever the battler, Mourinho protested that Chelsea's improved second-half performance on Sunday meant the scoreline was "fake," but neither the impression left by the game nor the statistics bore him out.

Eden Hazard forced City goalkeeper Joe Hart to save at 1-0, but it was Chelsea's only real chance at that stage and the host finished the game having recorded eight shots on target to the visitor's three.

Bloodied after a week that saw him roundly criticized for demoting medics Eva Carneiro and Jon Fearn over a row about their treatment of Hazard during the 2-2 draw with Swansea City, Mourinho was reduced to claiming City had abandoned its principles by tightening up in the second half.

It was a tactic he had employed after Chelsea's 1-0 loss to Arsenal in the Community Shield, when he accused Arsene Wenger's team of "leaving their philosophy in the dressing room," and it felt like a similarly redundant observation at newly expanded Etihad Stadium.

City manager Manuel Pellegrini reacted prudently as his players fought to protect the lead procured by Sergio Aguero's 31st-minute goal, sending on Samir Nasri and Martin Demichelis.

Mourinho said it was a sign City felt "in danger," but there was a grain of truth in Pellegrini's assertion that "in our worst moment, Chelsea didn't have chances."

Mourinho, whose side trails City by five points, said he was startled to see Aguero granted so much space in the first half when he and his defenders had spent "all week" planning how to stop him.

He also explained that his surprising decision to remove John Terry at halftime - the first time he has withdrawn his captain in 177 league games - was purely due to a desire to add Kurt Zouma's pace to the back four and move Chelsea's defensive line further forward.

Terry, 34, played every single second of Chelsea's title triumph last season and there was a note of irritation in Mourinho's voice when he was asked why it was he, and not Gary Cahill, who had been withdrawn.

"I don't know if you ask many questions to (Rafael) Benitez, Andre Villas-Boas, Roberto di Matteo, to the ones that never played him," Mourinho said, citing some of his predecessors in the Chelsea dug-out.

"I am the one you shouldn't ask because I am the one who played John every game, made him captain, recovered him from a difficult situation with other managers and had the right to say I want Zouma on the pitch."

The display is only likely to accelerate Chelsea's pursuit of Everton centerback John Stones. Leftback Abdul Rahman Baba's arrival from Augsburg was confirmed by the German club on Sunday.

(China Daily 08/18/2015 page22)