Mourinho angry at Tottenham tactics

Chelsea 0 Tottenham 0

In a damning sideswipe at Chelsea’s London rivals, Mourinho claimed that only “small teams” would adopt the sort of tactics that could scare supporters away from grounds.

And he even took a leaf out of Alex Ferguson’s book by insisting there should have been 15 minutes of injury-time at Stamford Bridge.

Mourinho declared: “It was a frustrating afternoon - frustrating for me, my players and for any real football supporter.

“People don’t pay money to see one team play and the other team defend, just kick balls away and fall down and get the medical staff on and take five minutes to change a player.

“They didn’t play football, they just defended, defended, defended, We played fantastic moments of attacking football and the result is not fair for the football we played.

“Mentally, it’s very difficult to play against a team that plays like this as they don’t want to play and we do. In the second half, there was only 25 minutes’ play out of 45 minutes.

“I finished with four players up. Normally, that would have been impossible if there had been two teams trying to win the game. But if I could have put more players up, I would have done. Maybe next time on the bench, instead of William Gallas and Alexei Smertin, I can have Adrian Mutu and Arjen Robben, when he’s fit.

“I don’t need defenders!”

Mourinho’s frustration poured out after an excellent defensive display by Spurs, who have conceded just two goals in an unbeaten six-match start to the season.

While Eidur Gudjohnsen hit the post, England keeper Paul Robinson produced several excellent saves and central defenders Ledley King and Noureddine Naybet were in superb form.

“Sometimes when you’re the coach of a big team, you have to understand how a small team plays, coming to a stadium just for that. But I’m surprised to see it in the Premiership,” added Mourinho.

“We had five minutes of injury-time, but it should have been 15.

“In the last 15 minutes, they were just kicking the ball away. They stopped playing completely and, every time the ball came back, there was wave after wave of our attacks.”

Tottenham boss Jacques Santini responded with a shrug when told of Mourinho’s criticism of his team.

“I understand Jose Mourinho is not happy. It’s normal when his side would have gone level with Arsenal if they had won,” he said.

“In an important game against Arsenal, if his team were winning 1-0 at Highbury, then it’s possible he would do the same thing. It’s normal. I know it was not the best game, but it was an important result for the spirit of my young team.”

Ironically, Spurs came the closest to scoring, with under-worked Chelsea keeper Petr Cech pulling off a superb close-range save from Robbie Keane.

CHELSEA: Cech, Paulo Ferreira, Ricardo Carvalho, Terry, Bridge (Smertin 85), Tiago (Kezman 66), Lampard, Makelele, Cole (Duff 66), Drogba, Gudjohnsen.

TOTTENHAM: Robinson, Naybet, King, Edman, Pamarot, Atouba (Brown 74), Redknapp, Pedro Mendes, Davies, Defoe (Kanoute 86), Keane.

Referee: M Riley (W Yorkshire).