Mourinho gets nod to field ‘weakened’ side against Liverpool

LONDON — Roman Abramovich has given his blessing to Jose Mourinho’s controversial plan to rest an entire first 11 in Chelsea’s showdown with Liverpool this Sunday, even if it means surrendering the Premier League title.

Abramovich and his board will not prevent their manager making wholesale changes for the trip to Anfield after Mourinho claimed anything else would jeopardise the club’s chances of reaching the Champions League final.

Mourinho risked outraging his rival managers, particularly Manchester City’s Manuel Pellegrini, by revealing on Tuesday his desire not to start any of the same players at Liverpool as they will feature in the semi-final second leg against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday.

His press conference after the first leg continued a week of contentious public statements which have led to his being charged on Wednesday with misconduct by the Football Association (FA).

The Portuguese, who has been fined £8,000 (S$16,900) twice this season, was accused of calling into question the integrity of referee Mike Dean and referees’ chief Mike Riley after the explosive defeat against Sunderland on Saturday, something viewed by the FA as a naked attempt to circumvent their rules on criticising officials.

But Chelsea should avoid punishment if Mourinho carries out his threat to field a “weakened” side against Liverpool.

Three years ago, making such changes would mean a five-figure fine, but the Premier League amended its rules in the summer of 2011 following controversial punishments handed out to Blackpool and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Clubs can now field anyone from their official 25-man squad list, in addition to some under-21 players.

There is no specific limit on how many youngsters clubs can start but the Premier League can fine them if it feels the integrity of the competition has been compromised.

Even with injuries to Petr Cech and John Terry, Mourinho can field 10 members of his 25-man Premier League squad on Sunday — along with one under-21 player — and still keep 11 back for Atletico.

While that would almost certainly not lead to any punishment, it could spark huge criticism and would doubtless infuriate City, who will be desperate for Chelsea to win at Anfield to resurrect their own title hopes.

Mourinho, who has long complained that clubs in Spain see fixtures re-arranged all the time to give them the best chance of progressing in Europe, feels that such drastic action is justified by the Premier League’s refusal to switch the game on Sunday, a decision which infuriated both him and the club.

Chelsea made representations to have it moved upon reaching the Champions League semi-finals, something the Premier League would have done automatically had the second leg of that tie been on a Tuesday. Indeed, with the first leg falling on Tuesday, it switched the Sunderland match to a Saturday.

However, it would not budge over the Liverpool fixture once the second leg of the Atletico game was confirmed as being on a Wednesday, insisting the club were fully aware of its policy on re-scheduling games at the start of the season. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH