Jose Mourinho last night intensified his ongoing feud with Arsene Wenger by claiming Arsenal have been "very intelligent" in the way their public image has been projected amid failure on the pitch and suggested the Arsenal manager too readily uses the progress of his young players as an excuse after defeats.
Arsenal's season is all but over with more than two months still remaining. They were eliminated from the Champions League by PSV Eindhoven, lost to Chelsea in the League Cup final, were knocked out of the FA Cup by Blackburn Rovers and remain 20 points adrift of the Premiership leaders Manchester United. Mourinho feels if his side had endured such a sequence of results stronger condemnation would ensue.
"At the start of every season we say we want to win trophies," he said. "If we win matches and trophies we have success. If we don't win matches then we don't have the success we are waiting for. I do not say 20 times that against Porto in the last 16 of the Champions League, for example, we finished the game with three boys aged 20; we are not these kind of people. If they have a player aged 20, 19, 18 or 34 that is not the point. If we play very, very, very well and don't win that is not the point. We have a direct approach to win and suffer the consequences of that when things are not going well."
Mourinho believes Wenger projects Arsenal's image in a "political way" to ensure failure reduces the damage done to his players. "I think they are very intelligent in their approach," he said. "I don't think here we have a political approach to things. I am not a politician and we do not fight our image in a political way. If you win, you win and if you lose, you lose. When we win, we win and when we don't we come in for criticism.
"But I think that is down to club mentality. (We are) a club without a big history that has a new owner with ambitions . . . If we reach them we are happy and if we don't we have no excuses."
Mourinho continued his thinly veiled attack on the Frenchman when asked about the potential fixture congestion Chelsea face as they step up their pursuit of three domestic trophies as well as the Champions League. "It is unbelievable but what can I do?" he asked. "I prefer to do that than to already be on holidays . . . if Chelsea were out of all four competitions I would imagine we would be in a difficult situation."
Chelsea's captain John Terry has returned to full training following the head injury he sustained in last month's League Cup final. Medical experts will have the final say on his readiness to play in Chelsea's FA Cup quarter-final with Tottenham tomorrow.
David Beckham's debut for LA Galaxy could come against Chelsea after the champions announced their participation in the World Series of Football. The four-team tournament will take place at Galaxy's Home Depot Center. The hosts are due to face Chelsea on July 21st.
Meanwhile, Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko has denied giving an interview to a German website in which he appeared to criticise Mourinho. Shevchenko insists the interview was a fabrication. He declared: "This is complete rubbish. I have never spoken to this German website or to the journalist who claims to have interviewed me."
The website alleged Shevchenko had complained to the club's owner Roman Abramovich about Mourinho's treatment of him since his move to Chelsea from AC Milan.
Tottenham will be boosted by their fine win over SC Braga in Portugal on Thursday night in the first leg of their Uefa Cup last-16 clash when Robbie Keane grabbed an injury-time winner. Keane opened the scoring before Steed Malbranque doubled the lead, although Paulo Jorge and Ze Carlos cancelled out Spurs' advantage. But Keane kept his cool to put his side in the driving seat to reach the quarter-finals.
Guardian Service
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