That Jose Mourinho has a contentious relationship with Chelsea and fans is nothing new. The maverick Portuguese manager has won seven titles at Stamford Bridge, but has also been sacked twice despite being one of their most successful managers.
On Sunday, when he returned as Manchester United’s manager for the quarterfinals of the FA Cup – which Chelsea won 1-0 – Mourinho was greeted with taunts of ‘Judas’ for supposedly betraying the club he was sacked from after leading them to double Premier League and League Cup in 2014-15. ‘The Special One’ responded by pointing three fingers in reference to the three league titles he won there and then by some choice comments most match.
“They can call me what they want. Until the moment they have a manager that wins four Premier Leagues for them, I’m the number one,” Mourinho was quoted as saying by Reuters. “When they have somebody that wins four Premier Leagues for them, I become number two. Until then Judas is number one.”
This was the second time this season that Mourinho’s United have lost in front of the Chelsea fans who once placed them on a pedestal. Manchester United were staring down the barrel, after being reduced to 10 men after already missing on the services of suspended striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic and injured Wayne Rooney and Anthony Martial. Ander Herrera was sent off in the 35th minute for a second yellow card – both for fouls on Eden Hazard, who was on the recieving end of the United attack. N’Golo Kante struck Chelsea’s winner in the 51st minute.
Mourinho also had a few rods reserved for the referee, Michael Oliver. “I think we can agree there was a match until Herrera saw the red card and there was another match after that,” Mourinho said. “Before that I saw a match that we were going to win. When we stayed with one player less they could be more dominant. But in spite of that we defended well and had the biggest chances. Mr Oliver goes home and he can do his own analysis because I don’t want to analyse his work,” he added.