This is pre-season training, Jose Mourinho style. His Chelsea players are primed to start the campaign in peak condition. His defenders get practice against some of the world’s top strikers. His flair players are given chances to show their talent against the French and European champions. His team overcome first Paris Saint-Germain and then Barcelona.
But whatever shape Eden Hazard, John Terry and co are in, one thing is certain. Mourinho is in top form. He is fit and focused. He has warmed up by sharpening his tongue. In the space of 36 hours, the Chelsea manager has renewed rivalries with two of his bitterest foes. The Special One has come up with some special one-liners over the years. He remains the most piercing critic of his peers. His methods may not be particularly moral, but his jibes tend to be memorable.
His attack on Rafa Benitez, with the inference the Spaniard is overweight, felt below the belt, just as he should not have branded Arsene Wenger a “voyeur” in 2005. His latest criticism of the Frenchman showed the economics graduate is not the only manager with a grasp of mathematics. Mourinho may have used the figures selectively, highlighting a period when Chelsea have tended to sell for sizeable sums, but he is correct that Arsenal’s net spend over the last two years is much higher. It is that precision, that laser accuracy, that means it is harder to believe Mourinho when he claims to be absent-minded. Everything is planned. Nothing is left to chance.
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