When the FA Cup quarterfinal draws were made public on February 20th, Manchester United versus Chelsea FC was obviously the headliner fixture. Funny how all these draws always yield the easiest match-ups for creating the perfect narratives, isn’t it?
This dual is obviously the Jose Mourinho Cup as the Portugese leads his current club against the one that sacked him in December of 2015. Mourinho is known for being a master tactician, and for sometimes playing elaborate mind games with his opponents. Whenever polls are taken of this sort regarding managers and their personalities, you’ll usually see Mourinho’s name near the top of the list.
The games already began for this one, as Mourinho then said his former club is already champions of the Premier League and have nothing else to play for other than the FA Cup.
“I have so many things to think about,” said Mourinho.
“I have to play Saint-Etienne and play the (EFL Cup) final and hopefully another opponent in the Europa League. I have to fight for the top four positions in the Premier League. Chelsea can only think about that because I think they are champions and have nothing else to play for.”
“It is possible to win three, two, one or no trophies. When we are in the competitions, we are going to fight. In the EFL Cup, we have a 50% possibility of winning and we have to fight for it to become a title.”
In addition to the FA Cup quarters, United are currently battling for top four in the league, likely advancing to Europa League round of 8 and had a date with Southampton in the League Cup final six days after Mourinho made those comments. That was four, but now three competitions for United. Mourinho became the first manager in United history to win a trophy in his very first year on the job when the Red Devils beat the Saints at Wembley.
Chelsea are currently top of the table with a whopping 10 point margin; and just 11 games left to play. They still hold an outside chance of finishing with both the BPL total wins and total records.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times and NBC Chicago.com, contributes to Chicago Tribune.com, Bold, WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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