FA Cup exit: ‘Ashamed’ Mourinho vows Chelsea recovery after shock defeat

The Blues suffered humiliating 4-2 loss at the hands of third-tier Bradford.

LONDON: Jose Mourinho insists Chelsea will recover from their humiliating FA Cup exit against third-tier Bradford because most of his star players missed the fourth-round defeat.

Mourinho suffered one of the most embarrassing defeats of his career as the Premier League leaders squandered a two-goal lead to lose 4-2 at the Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Chelsea’s first defeat to lower-league opposition since 2008 ended their bid to win all four of the major trophies on offer this season and left Mourinho admitting that he was ashamed of the performance.

However, Mourinho believes most of his players should not carry any scars from the defeat as he made eight changes against the League One side, with Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas only featuring as substitutes and Diego Costa left out of the squad entirely.

“Does this affect the next match? I don’t know because many of the players were not directly involved in the game,” said Mourinho.

Abu Dhabi friendly not to blame, says Pellegrini

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini played down the significance of his side’s midweek trip to Abu Dhabi after they were humbled 2-0 at home by Middlesbrough in the FA Cup.

City decided to take the seven-hour return flight from the Middle East on Friday and the squad were pictured leaving Manchester Airport just 19 hours before kick-off against Middlesbrough.

But Pellegrini refused to accept that the training camp in the UAE had any bearing on the result. “I don’t think so. I don’t agree,” said the Chilean. “You can have your opinion, but I have a different opinion because we had six or seven clear chances to score a goal.”

Tottenham’s cup runs dry as Leicester pounce

Tottenham Hotspur’s hectic schedule caught up with them as they slipped out of the FA Cup in a 2-1 fourth-round home defeat by Premier League bottom club Leicester City.

Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino has rotated his squad freely and did so again with record signing Erik Lamela back from injury and Spain striker Roberto Soldado in attack.

Belgian international Moussa Dembele also started, as did Brazil midfielder Paulinho, but Tottenham were punished for failing to build on their lead as Leicester pounced late on.

“I’m very disappointed because I thought we played well,” Pochettino told the Spurs website. “The problem was we didn’t kill the game. We gave the opportunity to Leicester to stay alive in the game and in the last 10 minutes we lost everything we made in the first 80.”

Other fixtures

Liverpool avoided the fate that befell Chelsea and City but were taken to a replay by Championship club Bolton following a 0-0 draw at Anfield.

Swansea City also fell to lower-league opposition, losing 3-1 at second-tier Blackburn Rovers in a game that saw them have two players sent off. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th,  2015.

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