Mourinho rubbishes Pochettino claims of tiredness

Matt Stead

Jose Mourinho is ‘not convinced’ over Mauricio Pochettino’s claims his Spurs players could be fatigued against Chelsea.

The two sides meet on Sunday, with Chelsea having played in the Champions League on Tuesday and Spurs having done so in the Europa League on Thursday, giving the Blues an extra 48 hours to recover.

Pochettino believes Chelsea have a clear advantage due to their longer break, but Mourinho has rubbished such claims, saying that his side had to do the same two seasons ago during their run to the Champions League semi-final.

“This story doesn’t convince me,” said Mourinho. “Because we played a CL semifinal against Atletico Madrid – Wednesday-Tuesday – and in the middle we had to play against Liverpool and our country decided it was not a problem to play Saturday or Sunday.

“So we play Sunday before the Champions League. If it’s not a problem for us, it’s not a problem for Tottenham.”

Mourinho added that he feels the Premier League scheduling perhaps doesn’t help his own side.

“Whenever we play Champions League we play against teams who don’t have European commitments in the following league game,” Mourinho said

“Stoke didn’t play in Europe, that’s a situation that creates a bigger difference.

“This week we played. When you play Saturday-Thursday, you have a longer time to recover.

“When you play Saturday-Tuesday, you are already in overload.

“In Germany, Italy, Portugal, there is a solution for everyone. There are rules to everyone. So here, I think it’s the same for everyone.”