Chelsea boss, Jose Mourinho has declared that Willian is definitely ruled out of the London derby between Chelsea and Arsenal because of the muscular injury he picked up against Maccabi Tel Aviv. Late decisions will be made on three more players – Oscar, Pedro and Falcao.
‘I select every player for the squad because we have doubts. Tomorrow I don’t want to be in a situation where during the warm-up somebody doesn’t have the best feelings, and we have lots of players in this situation.
‘Willian is not even an option. Pedro, Falcao and Oscar – let’s see what happens. They are not definitely ruled out but let’s see,” he said
He also declared that he has no interest in looking at the bigger picture or factoring history into the equation when Arsenal visit Stamford Bridge tomorrow.
The manager explained to those present at his pre-match media conference at Cobham why he felt it was irrelevant analysing the match as anything more than that – simply another match of football. League tables, form, precedent and the like should be ignored.
‘I want to isolate the match from every context,’ stressed Mourinho.
‘Our fantastic record against Arsenal doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter they haven’t beaten Chelsea for seven matches in the Premier League. It doesn’t matter they beat us in the Community Shield.
‘It’s just Chelsea against Arsenal. It’s a match we want to win. If it’s a pre-season friendly match it’s the same, I want to win.
‘If we are looking at the table at the moment and we see where we are, and we know the distance we are from the top of the league, I don’t think that helps us.
‘Playing in different competitions is helping us because at the moment we are doing that. It’s easier to forget one competition and focus on one match, and the match is Arsenal. One match. Now it’s Arsenal. Just that, nothing more.’ Agency report
