Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Chelsea preview: ‘Rocky home form is no barrier to European joy’

Mourinho has dig at Le Saux then says below-par Chelsea can still taste Champions League glory

Jose Mourinho watches training at the Sammy Ofer Stadium in the Israeli coastal city of Haifa (AFP)

Jose Mourinho may have given up on retaining Chelsea’s Premier League title this season, but knows that the Champions League is a totally different competition, one which, as he pointed out, unfancied teams can win more easily. So he goes into tonight’s game against Maccabi Tel Aviv, hoping that a victory will send his struggling side through to the knockout phase, or within touching distance of it, and put some gloss on a difficult start to the season.

The whole Chelsea squad has travelled to Israel for tonight’s game, and Mourinho, not one to let any slight go by unchallenged, took advantage of that fact to remind the world that Graeme Le Saux – who criticised him over the Eva Carneiro affair – declined to travel when Chelsea played in Israel in 2001.

It was not an edifying moment, in a season full of them, but despite Chelsea’s dismal form Mourinho still sees the possibility of success this year. As bad as they have been at home, Chelsea have been stable in the Champions League. They are not the best team in Europe, but as Mourinho knows, you can win the Champions League from the back of the field.

“We have obviously put ourselves in a very difficult position in the Premier League, where the distance is not to one team, it is to two, three, four teams,” Mourinho said here yesterday. “It’s very, very difficult. The Champions League, for us, is a competition where we’re not doing bad like we are in the Premier League. We are doing normal.”

Mourinho hopes that by staying in the Champions League, his team has a chance to win it, even if they are not currently on the level of Bayern Munich or Barcelona. “We know the Champions League, we know the favourites,” Mourinho said. “I know, and Chelsea know, that sometimes you win when you are not the favourites.

“When I won it twice with Porto [2004] and Inter [2010] we were far from favourites. We were not even top 10 favourites. When Chelsea won [in 2012], it was a very bad season they had, and they won it. So we know the Champions League has these big doses of unpredictability.”

Mourinho can call on almost his full squad for tonight’s game, with only the injured Radamel Falcao and Thibaut Courtois missing out. There is good news, though, on Courtois, who Mourinho expects to return in “mid-December”. There have been no withdrawals for security reasons, Mourinho having spoken to some of his players before they flew out on Sunday.

When Chelsea played Hapoel Tel Aviv in October 2001, a few weeks after 9/11, Le Saux was one of six Chelsea players who asked not to travel. The others were Marcel Desailly, Emmanuel Petit, Eidur Gudjohnsen, William Gallas and Albert Ferrer. At his press conference in Haifa yesterday, Mourinho chose to pick out the one player, Le Saux, who criticised him over the dispute with Carneiro. Le Saux said Mourinho’s conduct was “damaging” and risked setting football “back 30 years”.

“We just focus on playing, I didn’t have a single problem within the squad,” Mourinho said last night. “I didn’t have a Graeme Le Saux. I had everybody without fears, just wanting to come. I had even a player who, maybe, whose wife is going to have a baby either tomorrow or the next day but he’s here, focusing on what he can do for us.”

Chelsea’s travelling squad includes Ola Aina, Kenedy, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and Bertrand Traoré, none of whom have become regulars so far this season. Mourinho defended his use of Chelsea’s youngsters, saying that they have, in fact, been given good opportunities.

The Portuguese went into detail about the seven players in his squad aged 21 and under, and the chances they have been given, starting and from the bench. “[Kurt] Zouma starts 15 matches, Baba [Rahman] starts six matches, Ruben [Loftus-Cheek] starts three matches, Kenedy starts two matches. In a club like Chelsea, when you have a lot of top players, where it is difficult for the youngest to have chances, we are giving opportunities to players.”

There were high hopes of Loftus-Cheek becoming a first-team regular this season, but he has started only three games and not played one minute since being hauled off at half-time against Aston Villa more than one month ago. Mourinho said the midfielder had been given very good opportunities, and needed to meet him halfway.

“Sometimes young players can argue right or wrong that the chances were not too many for them,” Mourinho said. “Ruben is the last one who can complain about that. So everything is in his hands. Sooner or later, he – him, not me – has to give one step forward to be more stable in the first team. But of course he is a player who we have lots of hope for.

“He is a very talented player, no doubt, but with ups and downs in his evolution. Having the chances that not many players at his age get in big clubs, because it’s easier to get chances in smaller clubs. But in big clubs, not many players his age have the opportunities he has, living and learning with top teams. So he is having everything.”

Chelsea last night announced their financial results for last season, in which they lost £23.1m, a figure the club says is “comfortably within the allowable limits of FFP”. The turnover of £314.3m was slightly down on the 2013-14 figure of £319.8m, due to the club’s earlier exit from the Champions League.