Premier League: Mourinho bares teeth and puts Rooney on ice
CHELSEA 2 vs ASTON VILLA 1
CHELSEA manager Jose Mourinho has ruled out making a renewed attempt to sign Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney until after the two Premier League heavyweights clash on Monday.
Despite having less than two weeks to complete any transfer business, Mourinho is prepared to wait until after his team travel to the north-west to make a third offer for Rooney, on the grounds it is more “ethical”.
“I don’t want Chelsea to bid before we get there and everybody at the club, the board, they share that opinion,” he said. “There is time to do things. We will do it later but in this period we are going to be quiet and thinking about just the game.”
The Blues are the early top flight pace-setters after last night’s fiery win over Aston Villa which had Mourinho and his counterpart Paul Lambert at loggerheads over two debatable decisions from referee Kevin Friend.
After a pedestrian first half ended with Villa striker Christian Benteke turning in Gabriel Agbonlahor’s cross to cancel out Antonio Luna’s seventh-minute own goal, tempers boiled over in the second period with the managers vociferously exchanging opinions pitchside.
First, Branislav Ivanovic’s elbow on Benteke, moments before he headed in a 73rd-minute winner from Frank Lampard’s cross, split opinion on the touchline.
And an apparent handball from Chelsea captain John Terry, under pressure from Agbonlahor, inside his own penalty area in second-half stoppage time left Lambert incredulous.
“It’s a handball, it’s there for everybody to see. I think he’s [the referee] missed two big calls,” said the Scot. “I don’t think you can miss big decisions like that. They’re game changers.”
However, Mourinho had a different viewpoint on the incidents.
“It was a free-kick against Aston Villa,” he said. “He [Lambert] reminds me of myself 10 years ago where I complained about every decision.”
“I wanted to coach my team and at the same time have a whistle on my lips. But he is a young manager who is very intelligent that plays very well. I like him.”