Mourinho: The Red Card Changed Everything

When Thibaut Courtois received a straight red for a foul on Swansea’s Bafétimbi Gomis, Chelsea called up their reserve ‘keeper.

A celebratory atmosphere remained around Stamford Bridge as the club basked in the afterglow of last season’s success – a feat Jose Mourinho, fresh from signing a new deal, warned would not be repeated unless they showed the “quality and determination of champions“. This time it wasn’t Petr Cech.

Chelsea, crippled by numerical inferiority, though tried to score again. “I wasn’t very unhappy with my medical staff because you have to understand the game”, Mourinho said in his postmatch press conference when asked why he was jumping around screaming as the physio ran on. “Saturday starts that fight for the points”.

And Falcao is well aware of the dangers posed by clubs such as Swansea, who saw Chelsea account for 18 per cent of their total league goals conceded last season (nine out of 49).

The much-awaited game at Vitality Stadium was decided by substitute Rudy Gestede’s header in the 72nd for last season’s FA Cup finalists. “But I’ve worked to prevent it occurring”. He’s shown it all through his career but especially last season. I was sure Eden didn’t have a serious problem. If the Frenchman could be accused of being wasteful, it is worth remembering that Wilfried Bony, 2014’s joint-top Premier League goal scorer, used to average 3.5 shots per game at Swansea while scoring at a 0.50 goals-per-game clip; that’s a world class goal return, but still only equates to one goal for every seven shots.

With Chelsea in control and leading 2-1, Courtois brought down Bafetimbi Gomis in the area and was given his marching orders, while the Swansea striker converted the penalty.

Jose Mourinho’s Blues twice gave up the lead while losing goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois to a red card in a below par beginning to their campaign.

Chelsea were embroiled in familiar Premier League high drama as the champions were reduced to 10 men and held 2-2 by Swansea City in an entertaining start to the defence of their title at their home fortress.

At least the Chelsea manager was handed the boost of seeing Diego Costa come through 90 minutes after another hamstring injury.

It was one of very few chances in a scrappy match which Louis van Gaal’s new-look United started with four pre-season signings. Andre Ayew, Jefferson Montero and Bafe Gomis were all excellent, as Swansea created enough chances to record an unlikely victory.

The Portuguese did praise his team for their first half performance and didn’t blame them for the draw.