It's 平易な to defend Jose Mourinho! The Chelsea boss is not dull... he's brilliant

Give me that: Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard tries to quickly retrieve the ball from Mourinho

One ちらりと見ること at the 週末’s results 証明するs that defence is not as straightforward at it looks.

Norwich City could have done with not losing at Manchester 部隊d and went 負かす／撃墜する by four. The same is true of Cardiff City, beaten 4-0 at Sunderland. And no 疑問 Felix Magath would have preferred it if his Fulham team had not squandered a 2-0 lead against 船体 City.

There have been 356 首相 League matches this season and only 26 have ended in goalless draws. Liverpool have kept three clean sheets in the league since January 28. Defence isn’t 平易な at all.

Rodgers could not have sent out a team to play like Chelsea on Sunday and not just because he wouldn’t want to. He doesn’t have the players. Not a 選び出す／独身 member of Liverpool’s 支援する four would get in Chelsea’s team and, with the exception of Jamie Carragher, it is hard to 解任する a Liverpool player who has 定期的に 攻撃する，衝突する Chelsea’s 防御の 基準 in 10 years.

Michael Owen put ツバメ Skrtel in his team of the season recently but that was a generous call. Liverpool have 譲歩するd more goals than? 水晶 Palace and 船体 City in this （選挙などの）運動をする.

There was always the potent ial for a reckoning against Chelsea.

失望／欲求不満s: Liverpool 経営者／支配人 Brendan Rodgers 反応するs as he watches his 味方する 苦しむ 敗北・負かす

Liverpool’s 得点する／非難する／２０ing 記録，記録的な／記録する is exceptional this season: 96 goals in 36 games.

After the same number of matches last season, the 支持する／優勝者s, Manchester 部隊d, had 79 goals. They had 譲歩するd 37, though, compared to Liverpool’s 46.

In fact, if Liverpool do go on to 勝利，勝つ the league, they will have shipped more goals than any 支持する／優勝者s in 首相 League history ― 含むing those seasons when the 肩書を与える was decided over 42 games.

The 最高の，を越す team do not usually let in anywhere 近づく 46 goals ― even Manchester 部隊d’s 37 in 2012-13 was high and their 45 in 1999-00 was the previous 首相 League 記録，記録的な／記録する.

Chelsea 譲歩するd 15 in winning a first 肩書を与える under Mourinho in 2004-05 and only 22 the next year. Even the swashbuckling 部隊d gave up only 22 goals in 2007-08 and George Graham’s? 兵器庫 once let in 18 in a 勝利を得た 42-game season.

If Liverpool now 勝利，勝つ the 肩書を与える, even if they do not 選ぶ the ball out of the 逮捕する again, they will still have 譲歩するd more times than any 支持する／優勝者 team since Derby 郡 in 1974-75 (49 in 42 games). So they were always at 危険 against a 経営者／支配人 who could 位置／汚点／見つけ出す a 証拠不十分 a mile away ― 特に one which was painted 有望な red.

Tight: Chelsea only 譲歩するd 15 when Jose Mourinho won his first 首相 League 肩書を与える in 2004-05

Stop Liverpool 得点する／非難する／２０ing and there is a good chance of a 勝利，勝つ because their defence will 譲歩する. That is a fact.

Do you know how many 首相 League teams have 得点する／非難する／２０d against Liverpool this season? All 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester 部隊d.

So Mourinho really didn’t need the brains of Stephen 強硬派ing to work out his 策略. Liverpool are 前線-負担d. Defend and wait for the 開始.

That is what he did. He didn’t park two buses. He played Liverpool as all teams should. Attack without 警告を与える and they will kill you. 失望させる them, keep it tight and, chances are, their defence won’t 停止する.

Tottenham and 兵器庫 are 壊れやすい, too, but do not have? Liverpool’s potency in attack.
Mourinho approached matches against those clubs in a 完全に different way. 明確に, he had greater 尊敬（する）・点 for Liverpool’s 今後s.

‘That’s not football,’ cried an 怒った Liverpool fan at Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck as it became obvious the 推定するd 行列 to a first 肩書を与える of the 首相 League 時代 had 攻撃する，衝突する a pothole in the road.

Strong at the 支援する: George Graham's 兵器庫 味方する let in just 18 goals when they won the league in 1990-91

But it is. It just isn’t the football that, ideally, 勝利，勝つs 肩書を与えるs. Then again, neither is 譲歩するing 46 goals.
Liverpool are just as 欠陥d as Chelsea, but in a way that makes better football matches.

To the 中立の, Cardiff City 3 Liverpool 6 is a fabulous spectacle. To Mourinho, to borrow his phrase, it is a ホッケー 得点する／非難する／２０; and a 手がかり（を与える） where the 証拠不十分 lies.

What if everyone played Mourinho’s game? Everyone won’t. It’s hard. It 要求するs 最高の，を越す-質 defenders and the 利ざや for error is minute. One mistake in the last minute against Atletico Madrid and the whole evening would have come to naught. The same will be true tonight if Chelsea are 主要な by a 選び出す／独身 g oal.

So Mourinho plays it far from 安全な. He walks a tightrope in many of his biggest matches. No 移行 and no safety 逮捕する. The mistake is thinking it is 平易な 存在 him.

All is good: Mourinho smiles with Chelsea just 90 minutes away from the 支持する／優勝者s League final

Moyes moan an 早期に 警告

同盟（する）s of David Moyes have been out in 軍隊 since his 解雇（する）ing by Manchester 部隊d, eager to put his 味方する of the story. Some of the mitigation will find a 同情的な ear but not, surely, the moan that he was given the fixture 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） from hell ― Chelsea at home, Liverpool and Manchester City away, in his first five matches.

If this truly was Moyes’s 態度 he was unsuited to the position from the start. This was Manchester 部隊d, for heaven’s sake. What happened to playing without 恐れる?

見解（をとる）d 前向きに／確かに, it was a fantastic opportunit y for a new 経営者／支配人. 敗北・負かす a collection of 部隊d’s greatest 競争相手s and what a start for the Moyes 時代. The fans were imploring the team to play like Fergie’s boys ― and those players were always up for a 捨てる against the best. Liverpool were not even 肩書を与える 競争相手s 支援する then, either. They were a team that had finished seventh the previous season, 28 points behind Manchester 部隊d.

There was no 推論する／理由 to be 脅迫してさせるd by the trip to Merseyside and if Moyes regarded the タイミング of that match as a stitch-up, as is 示唆するd, the beginning of the end （機の）カム a lot sooner than any imagined.

批評: Former Manchester 部隊d 経営者／支配人 David Moyes complained about the fixture 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）

Suarez 沈むs his teeth into 肯定的な 役割

Luis Suarez, deservedly the Players’ Player of the Year and hot favourite to follow that with the Footballer of the Year award, has shed light on his change in 態度 this season.

‘The best is to try and turn the 状況／情勢 around and not 支払う／賃金 attention to what people say,’ 主張するd Suarez. ‘With hard work and thinking, one can come through it.’

How true. Also with not biting people. That helps.

Accolade: Liverpool striker Luis Suarez (権利) won the PFA Player of the Year award on Sunday night

And while we're at it...

So what was the greatest 肩書を与える race? You’re probably watching it. If Manchester City 敗北・負かす Everton on Saturday evening, two points will separate the 最高の，を越す three teams in the 首相 League with two games remaining. Don’t bother looking; since three points for a 勝利，勝つ began in season 1981-82, that hasn’t happened.

There have been two occasions in the 首相 League 時代 when three teams were in 論争 with two games remaining, and one 以前. In 2007-08, Manchester 部隊d and Chelsea were level on 81 points after 36 games, with 兵器庫 on 77. In 1998-99, Manchester 部隊d and 兵器庫 were tied on 75 points, with Chelsea on 71.

支持する／優勝者s: Manchester 部隊d went on to 勝利，勝つ the league when theree teams were in 論争 in 1998-99

Technically, three teams were in 論争, but on both occasions for the third-placed team to 後継する the 最高の，を越す two had to fail to 勝利，勝つ both remaining matches. Before that, in 1985-86, Liverpool had 85 points from 41 games, with West Ham 部隊d on 81 points and Everton on 80, both with a game in 手渡す. It was tight but, again, would have needed a やめる remarkable sequence of results for the third-placed team to come through.

Yet, にもかかわらず Jose Mourinho’s protestations to the contrary, Chelsea are still in it ― certainly until next Wednesday, if the 最高の，を越す three keep winning ― and the 首相 League are already making 計画（する）s to have the トロフィー and two replicas in 循環／発行部数 on the final day. If it comes to that, truly it will have been a unique season for our times. Who says modern life is rubbish?

Steffon call-up will blow away 'no 追放するs' 支配する

Steffon Armitage, who helped Toulon reach the Heineken Cup final on Sunday, is one of the best 今後s in European rugby 権利 now. Playing in フラン, however, he has no chance of making England’s World Cup team next year. England do not 選ぶ players who are based abroad.

Yet Stuart Lancaster, the England 長，率いる coach, made the trip to the Mediterranean last week, 表面上は to remind Armitage of the exceptional circumstances 支配する. If there were an unusual sequence of events, the? ‘no 追放するs’ 政策 might be relaxed in the 利益／興味s of the team.

Yet before this year’s Six Nations （選挙などの）運動をする, Lancaster 明らかにするd the 原則.

On form: Toulon 今後 Steffon Armitage helped his team reach the Heineken Cup final on Sunday

‘Yes, there is a 条項 about exceptional circumstances, but they are 正確に that,’ he said. ‘Exceptional. Every 飛行機で行く-half out and the World Cup final next week; then maybe.’

So is every 支援する-列／漕ぐ／騒動 今後 out? No. Is the World Cup final next week? No. So why waver, even a little? There are those who think Lancaster is mad for supporting the 禁止（する）, others who admire him for 保護するing the English club game, but the 底（に届く） line is this: if he bends for Armitage, no 事柄 his talent, it is over. Come one, come all.

The 最高潮 of the roving European 選手権 tournament in 2020 will be held in England or Germany, after Istanbul pulled out of the 企て，努力，提案 to 持つ／拘留する the last three games. Turkey now want to 焦点（を合わせる） on 存在 完全な hosts in 2024.

We have heard much from Michel Platini about his brilliant idea for a multi-国家の 2020 tournament ― yet if the 計画／陰謀 is so smart, why isn’t it now the 永久の 判型?

Plainly, this was always nothing more than a panicked 妥協; which is why UEFA are すぐに 逆戻りするing to the old way.

Euro 支配する: UEFA 大統領，／社長 Michel Platini (left) （機の）カム up with the idea for a multi-国家の Euro 2020