Last weekend Chelsea were held to a draw against Burnley with refereeing mistakes playing their part. Therefore is Jose Mourinho’s ‘campaign against Chelsea’ agenda having a negative effect on decisions on the pitch?
Mourinho has been vocal in his frustration at recent decisions that have gone against Chelsea claiming that there was a campaign from the media and the FA against the club. If he was looking for more evidence, it was served up in spades at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
The Burnley game saw Chelsea denied two clear penalties in the first half. Whilst Nemanja Matic was sent off for retaliating after a leg-breaker challenge from Ashley Barnes that went unpunished. This left Chelsea with a solitary goal cushion to defend with 10 men and they were unable to hold on.
In his post match press conference, Mourinho refused to discuss the incidents instead citing the minutes of the key incidents that went against Chelsea.
Instead he did something unprecedented and chose to give an in-depth interview of more than 17 minutes on Sky Sports show Goals on Sunday.
During the interview he admitted he could miss the Capital One Cup Final due to anticipated FA disciplinary action in response to his interview with Ben Shepherd and Chris Kamara.
Mourinho has successfully set up a siege mentality within the Chelsea camp with the talk of a ‘campaign’ however it puts extra scrutiny and pressure on referees of Chelsea games and this could be having the opposite effect to what was intended.
Referees under this pressure may be slightly reluctant to give big decisions to Chelsea for the fear that should they get it wrong that the FA and referees would be accused of succumbing to pressure from Chelsea and Jose Mourinho.
So although a siege mentality may drive Chelsea forward the effect on the decisions themselves may actually be worse than if nothing was said.
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