MOURINHO
Martin Keown believes that many Chelsea players
will be “fired up” to beat Jose Mourinho’s Manchester
United this
weekend.
Last season, Mourinho was
dismissed by the west London club for the second time, following a run of nine
defeats in 16 Premier League games.
The Portuguese coach departed
amid a flurry of controversy, due to both his own comments in press conferences
and reports in the media of dressing room unrest.
Though the accusations of
in-fighting were denied by a large section of the Blues squad, they were
clearly performing at a much poorer standard than during 2014/15,
in which Mourinho led Chelsea to the Premier League title.
Eden Hazard, who won the PFA Player of the Year award in
that title-winning campaign, was particularly scrutinised as he failed to score
under Mourinho.
Keown believes that Hazard,
alongside numerous teammates, will be keen to defeat the manager they “fell
out” with, who subsequently moved to title rivals United on a four-year
contract.
The BBC pundit also cited his own experience when playing against former
Arsenal manager George Graham in the late 1990s.
Keown wrote for the Daily Mail: "This weekend there will be a lot of Chelsea
players fired up to beat him.
"Mourinho had special
relationships with players but he often pushed it too far and fell out with a
lot of people. It’ll be especially interesting to see how Eden Hazard performs
in this game.
"When George Graham came
back to Highbury with Leeds and Tottenham we all had a great respect for him
but were also desperate to beat him.
"We felt like we should
beat him because we knew exactly how he would set up and exactly what he’d be
saying to his players in the dressing room."
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