Mourinho blasts arsenal fans for ‘boring’ chant

LONDON — Jose Mourinho has hit back at chants of “Boring, boring Chelsea”, by claiming that Arsenal supporters should be bored of not winning the Premier League title.

Chelsea moved to within a whisker of clinching the title by securing a goalless draw at the Emirates Stadium, as Mourinho, the Blues’ manager, extended his unbeaten run over his Arsenal counterpart Arsene Wenger to 13 matches.

Mourinho started the game without a recognised striker in his line-up and the Arsenal fans chanted “Boring, boring Chelsea” near the end of the game and at the final whistle.

However, referring to the fact that Arsenal’s last title win came in 2004, Mourinho said: “You know, boring I think, is 10 years without a title. That’s very boring. You support the club and you’re waiting, waiting, waiting for so many years without a Premier League title, so that’s very boring.”

Mourinho suggested that Wenger, was negative to take off striker Olivier Giroud late on. “Maybe (the Arsenal fans) aren’t singing to us,” the Portuguese said. “Maybe, when you want to win a game and you’re at home and you take the No 9 off, maybe the home fans want to see (Danny) Welbeck and Giroud up front.

“We had a very good experience. The boring team is the second-highest scorers in the Premier League, the team with the best goal difference. Only City have scored more goals than us. So, I think we scored a lot of goals and, in a period when we don’t have Diego Costa or Loic Remy and have only one striker, we need to work in a way where he can help us with all the matches we are having. We changed our dynamic a bit and we are not scoring so many goals as before. But even so, we are the second-highest scorers.”

Chelsea can win the title by beating Leicester City tomorrow night (Thursday morning, Singapore time) and then Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge, and Mourinho said: “We need to win the five points to be champions. If we do that, and I think we are going to do that, we will be champions being top of the league since day one. Being top of the league since day one, only top teams can do that.”

With Costa and Remy injured, Mourinho started with Oscar as a stand-in striker, but the Brazilian had to be replaced by Didier Drogba at half-time after clashing with Arsenal goalkeeper David Ospina.

Ospina was lucky not to give away a penalty after barging into Oscar, who had to go to hospital. Mourinho decided against commenting on the incident, instead preferring to praise his team and, particularly, captain John Terry. “I told John Terry in the dressing room that he had made fantastic performances with me, but this was his best,” the Chelsea manager said. “It was the best JT has ever played. It was absolutely amazing.

“He had fantastic performances in the five years we worked together, and some of them with goals. One performance at Highbury, I think in my first season, fantastic performance too. But I think today everything was clean — reading the game, giving cover, the defensive line, interceptions, reading the game so well, with the pass. The team was phenomenal, but John was one step ahead of every other player.”

Terry said: “It is a big step to where we want to go. It’s not done mathematically, but it’s a big step. Listen, Arsenal are a very good side and they have world-class players, but we nullified them. Everyone expected us to come and sit like we did against Manchester United, but we gave it a go in the first half. In the second half, we kept the ball more. The referee got all of the decisions right, I thought. We are almost there, but we have a tough game against Leicester on Wednesday. It’s in our hands.”

Wenger refused to comment on the fact that he has yet to beat Mourinho in 13 attempts, saying: “Look, it’s about our club and our team. It’s not about me. We wanted to win the game for the club. The rest is maybe good for media talk, but less interesting (for me). What is important is what happens on the football pitch.”

Cesc Fabregas returned to the Emirates Stadium for the first time since leaving Arsenal and was booed by a section of the home fans during the game. But the Spaniard also earned applause from some Gunners fans at the final whistle and left the pitch at the end with an Arsenal shirt around his shoulders.

Asked about the reception Fabregas received, Wenger said: “I’ve seen much worse.”

Mourinho said: “(Fabregas) is the last guy to be nervous. He was very comfortable. He wanted to play. A solid performance, like everyone in my team.” THE DAILY TELEGRAPH