The Blues managed a great series of matches over the past month and hope to continue their winning streak. Chelsea won against City on Sunday and are now looking forward to facing Arsenal in the Capital One Cup. According to Metro, Mourinho started putting pressure on the Gunners by issuing some statements regarding the difficult schedule Chelsea will have to deal with. The “Special One” implied that Arsenal benefit from special treatment from domestic competition schedulers who apparently favor the North London team. The Portuguese manager even hinted that his team will not be able to perform as well as they normally would because of the short recovery period between games.
Mourinho tried to lower expectations regarding the outcome of the match by saying Chelsea will not be able to give their best performance. The clash against City was very demanding and one day is just not enough to prepare for a knockout game against such a strong side as Arsenal.
Chelsea’s boss sees the fact that the game will take place on Tuesday as a big advantage for the Gunners. He even declared that this particular program is constructed in such a way that Arsenal would finally win a trophy after an 8 year drought. Mourinho was very confident that such a schedule is intentionally built to influence the outcome of the Capital One Cup game.
Mourinho even considered using Chelsea’s youth team against Arsenal but came to his senses after thinking about the fans who expect their team to perform at optimal levels no matter the situation.
It is hard to believe that Arsenal benefit from any preferential treatment after you take a look at their schedule. The Gunners have to face Chelsea, Liverpool and United before the 10th of November. Add to that the fact that they also face Dortmund between the clashes against Liverpool and United and you get a very busy set of fixtures that will surely influence this season’s outcome for Wenger’s team. If you consider both Chelsea and Arsenal’s program, it is obvious that Mourinho’s attitude and statements are probably meant to influence Arsenal’s attitude towards the game and hurt their concentration.