Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho turned his ire on Premier League officials by denouncing a “fake” league table after his side returned to the summit with a 3-0 win at home to Stoke City on Saturday.
The victory was secured by goals from Mohamed Salah, Frank Lampard and Willian, and saw Chelsea leapfrog Liverpool into first place by a point ahead of the Reds’ tie yesterday against West Ham United.
It also left the Blues two points in front of Manchester City but — significantly — Manuel Pellegrini’s third-placed side will have two games in hand over Chelsea and Liverpool after the weekend. That does not sit well with Mourinho, who said it is wrong that the clubs vying for the title will not have played the same number of games until the last week of the season.
“The situation is the same. The table is again fake,” Mourinho said. “The table is again with lots of matches in hand.”
“In the top of the league we cannot say we need ‘X’ points to be champions. This, in the best league in the world, I don’t think is the best image we are giving and it’s not the best situation,” he added.
Nevertheless, the self-proclaimed “Special One” was happy with Saturday’s win, which boosted Chelsea ahead of the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain at Stamford Bridge tomorrow.
Chelsea face a tough task after a 3-1 first-leg loss in France, a reverse that followed a shock 1-0 defeat by Crystal Palace, but Mourinho was pleased by the way his side bounced back against Stoke.
“It took us 10 or 15 minutes to recover a little bit of confidence and self-esteem after two defeats,” he said. “After that, the team played well.”
Mourinho had harsh words for his forwards after the first leg against PSG, saying he did not have any “true strikers” — a direct reference to the lack of scoring prowess of Fernando Torres and Demba Ba, neither of whom started in Paris.
Torres was recalled for the Stoke game, but made little impact. Nevertheless, Mourinho was careful to offer words of encouragement to the Spain striker this time round.
“As always, he gave everything he could,” the Chelsea boss said.
Stoke are not in immediate danger of relegation as they have 40 points, but manager Mark Hughes, a former Chelsea striker, said he had expected more from his side.
“I was disappointed in what we produced. In recent weeks we have been a lot better than that,” he said.
Elsewhere in the Premier League on Saturday, Manchester City’s Yaya Toure and Southampton’s Rickie Lambert both struck from the penalty spot before City’s Samir Nasri and Edin Dzeko scored in the first half of stoppage-time to hand Manuel Pellegrini’s men a 3-1 win.
Controversy surrounded Nasri’s goal since David Silva, who played in the France midfielder, was offside when he received the ball.
Man City substitute Stevan Jovetic added a fourth in the 81st.
Defeat was made worse for the Saints when England striker Jay Rodriguez went off with a first-half knee injury that put a question mark on his chances of being picked in Roy Hodgson’s squad for the FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil.
“I don’t know how Jay Rodriguez is. It’s not looking good,” said Southampton boss Mauricio Pochettino, who was furious at the decision to let Nasri’s goal stand, saying: “This action from the linesman for the second goal killed the game.”
At St James’ Park, Manchester United moved above Tottenham Hotspur, who face Sunderland today, and into sixth place with a 4-0 win away to Newcastle United.
Following their impressive 1-1 Champions League draw at home to title-holders Bayern Munich, David Moyes’ side took the lead on Saturday courtesy of Juan Mata’s curling 39th minute free-kick.
The Spain midfielder doubled United’s lead five minutes after halftime and Javier Hernandez made it 3-0 in the 65th.
At Villa Park, Fulham moved off the bottom of the table with a 2-1 win away to Aston Villa that saw the Cottagers remain in the relegation zone, but put them just five points shy of safety with five games left.
In the day’s other games, Crystal Palace moved seven points clear of relegation with a 3-0 win over Cardiff City, West Bromwich Albion went five points away from the drop zone by beating Norwich City 1-0 and Hull City downed Swansea City by the same scoreline thanks to George Boyd’s first-half goal at the KC Stadium.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB