José Mourinho’s thoughts turn to Anfield after Chelsea trounce Swansea

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jan/18/chelsea-swansea-city-premier-league-jose-mourinho

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José Mourinho believes no team will ever do the quadruple, but it will not stop him going for a clean sweep of all four major competitions with Chelsea this season, starting with the Capital One Cup.

Mourinho has unfinished business with Liverpool, who are Chelsea’s opponents at Anfield on Tuesday night in the first leg of their semi-final.

No sooner had his Premier League leaders consolidated their position at the top by thrashing Swansea than the manager turned his attention to Liverpool, who he has never forgiven for denying his team a place in the 2005 European Cup final with what he calls a “ghost” goal by Luis García.

Ten years is a long time, but Mourinho still harbours a grievance. He said: “Anfield is an historic stadium and everybody likes to play there. I like it but I have difficult memories. Losing a Champions League semi-final to a goal that didn’t cross the line will stay in my mind for ever, I cannot forget it. It still hurts, of course it does, and in the Capital One Cup there is no goalline technology, so we are not free from it happening again.”

A decade on, Chelsea’s class of 2015 were in imperious form at the Liberty Stadium, Mourinho describing their performance as “perfect”. So could his team win everything? “No,” he said, “I don’t think that it’s possible for anyone. But it is possible to play for it and to motivate yourself with it.”

The European Cup was the ultimate objective, Mourinho insisting greatness would elude this team and that they would be forgotten in 20 years time if they did not win it.

On this form you would not bet against it. Chelsea have been vulnerable on their travels of late but they outclassed Swansea to a startling degree and would not have been flattered by an 8-0 margin – Willian struck the framework of the goal twice with Lukasz Fabianski beaten.

The Swans contributed to their own downfall to a ridiculous degree, gifting possession for two of the goals in a performance Garry Monk rightly described as “horrible”, but Chelsea’s finishing was of the highest order and they were obvious winners from the very first minute, when Gylfi Sigurdsson’s stray pass allowed Oscar to score from the edge of the D.

Diego Costa struck from near the penalty spot in the 20th minute and with Swansea overrun in midfield, where they were without Jonjo Shelvey, Leon Britton and Ki Sung-yueng, what followed was purely a question of arithmetic. Costa brought his personal tally to 17 in 19 league appearances after intercepting a woeful backpass by Frederico Fernández and Oscar’s second, from 18 yards, made it 4-0 before half-time.

To Welsh relief Chelsea eased up in the second half, with one eye already on Anfield, and they scored just one more, from substitute André Schürrle.

For Swansea it was a chastening, demoralising experience. A top 10 finish has always been their target, but there was talk of Europe as recently as the beginning of December, when they were only a point behind Arsenal, who were sixth. Now, however, two wins in their last eight in the League leaves them with as many defeats as victories and the departure of Wilfried Bony does not augur well.

They need his replacement as principal striker, Bafétimbi Gomis, to come good sooner rather than later, but on Saturday he was peripheral figure, starved of possession.

Chelsea have no such problems and John Terry, their long-serving captain, who moved ahead of Frank Lampard in the all-time appearances list [649], said: “We’ve lost a couple away from home but in the first half our football and the goals was some of the best I’ve known. Me and Gaz [Gary Cahill] felt like we weren’t doing anything. We were just applauding what was going on in front of us. It was a delight to see.

“At this stage to be in all the competitions is where you want to be. Now it’s down to the big players [he included himself] to step up and let everyone else decide, once we win stuff, how good a side we are.

“Personally, I’m delighted to go above Lamps today and to be third in the all-time list. It’s going to be hard to catch the top two [Ron Harris on 795 and Peter Bonetti on 729], but I’m happy to be where I am. The next target is The Cat [goalkeeper Bonetti]. We always joke about it when I see him.”

Man of the match Oscar (Chelsea)