LONDON - Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho condemned the Premier League's fixture bunglers today after the game that could have defined the season was reduced to an appendix to Manchester United's English soccer title celebrations.
The top two teams in the country played out a largely tedious goalless draw
at Stamford Bridge three days after United secured the title when Chelsea drew 1-1 at Arsenal.
The match was re-arranged from April 15, a weekend when both clubs were involved in FA Cup semi-finals and a time when United led by just three points.
"It is difficult to accept that we didn't play on 15 April or whatever," Mourinho told reporters. "The Premier League is the best in the world and it can't afford this kind of mistake, to have Chelsea v Manchester United coinciding with the FA Cup semi-finals, when there is a big chance that one of the clubs would be involved.
"It's very, very bad. This is the game that every football fan around the world should be eating by TV but I think they changed for a soap or something more interesting."
Mourinho stressed that he did not presume that the championship would have turned out differently had the game been played when it meant something but was just frustrated.
"It's not a good decision," he added. "If we play in the middle of April with six or seven more matches to play, I'm not saying we would have won the game and I'm not saying we would have won the Premiership. I'm just saying I don't think it's the correct situation."
In Wednesday's game United fielded a virtual reserve team while Chelsea also tried a few new faces but things will be different when they meet again for the FA Cup final on May 19.
Mourinho, whose dreams of a quadruple disappeared in the last two weeks, now has to target a mere double after Chelsea's League Cup success in February.
"We've never hidden our ambition to go there," he said of the Wembley final.
"We have played good teams full of our best players. We've fought a lot to be there, we deserve to be there, especially after the two incredible matches against Tottenham.
"It's the only competition we haven't won together. If we do it we can say we won every domestic competition which would be nice."
- REUTERS
