He’s been under fire for most of the season and while he clearly doesn’t like to lose we actually think that Jose Mourinho relishes the backs against the wall occasions.
Like one of his mentors, Sir Alex Ferguson, the Chelsea boss has arguably always created an ‘us vs the world’ ambience within his squads and he will hope that they can all pull together for a big push over the next few months.
In his weekly press conference he said:
“We need to win matches for us, for the Chelsea supporters. I don’t know how to stop unfair stories but we are not worried. We are not going to be relegated – in a couple of months we will be in a position we want to be in.”
In terms of injuries he gave positive news – only Thibaut Courtois and Branislav Ivanovic are currently out. And, of the right back berth:
“There are four solutions – Cesar Azpilicueta, Kurt Zouma, Ramiries or an 18-year-old, Ola Aina,”
He also earmarked the brilliant youngster Ruben Loftus-Cheek for a special mention:
“Ruben has been working with us every day since January and has evolved physically, tactically, mentally. We can start him. He is ready.”
In the light of recent performances form some of his big hitters, there is a suggestion here that the Chelsea boss is prepared to give the youngster a chance in the holding midfield role alongside Nemanja Matic.
This would either mean that Fabregas gets pushed further forward or is dropped after some really poor games of late.
With all this in mind, here is our potential Chelsea XI for the home game against Aston Villa on Saturday – a game which Jose will see as a must win.
Chelsea fans: let’s have your XIs
