Gary Cahill Rallies His Chelsea Troupes

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho had some seething words for his defeated players after they failed to take any points from their Premier League tilt with Crystal Palace. Visibly distraught after the defeat, central defender Gary Cahill was comforted by Mourinho, and was one of the few who were ultimately exempt from his tongue lashing. Speaking about the recent bad turn of results, Cahill had the following to say:

“Mentally we have to be right,’ he said. ‘We have to be ruthless, go to places like Selhurst Park and do a job. We knew it was going to be a difficult game but we have to get the job done, unfortunately we didn’t do that.

“There were times when Palace made it difficult for us, they played a lot of long balls and a lot of direct football but it’s disappointing. We didn’t really create much apart from Eden’s chance in the second half, which was a fantastic save.”

“We feel we had enough to win there and in previous weeks we created a lot more than we did against Palace.”

Cahill’s comments seem to strike at the core of their issues against lesser sides this season. With a series of bad results punctuating what is otherwise a typically Mourinho-esque season, the defender is imploring the dressing room to adopt a better attitude ahead of what might seem, on paper, to be easy games.

Even if his comments are heeded, Blues’ fans will now have to rely on Liverpool or Manchester City slipping up, if they are to have any hope of taking home this year’s Premier League crown. With Chelsea still to play Liverpool, and City also booked for a trip to Anfield, there’s every chance that the title can be recovered, but there must be no more slip ups. Mourinho and Cahill know this, and one can only hope that the rest of the dressing room is equally motivated.