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Raise your hands if you saw this coming: Jose Mourinho's quotes about Eden Hazard's quotes being taken out of context have themselves been taken out of context.
Asked about the Belgian winger's now infamous comments made to BeIN Sports following Chelsea's defeat to Atletico Madrid, Mourinho responded as follows:
There was nothing critical in what he said. When the comments come from a player like Eden it's normal because he's not the kind of player to sacrifice himself for the team. Normally you get these kind of comments from players like him, from players that can't resolve a problem like we had in the first goal.
Eden is the kind of player that is not so mentally ready to look back to his left-back and to leave his life for him. If you see the first goal of Atletico you completely understand where the mistake was and why we conceded that goal. The perfect team at the top level cannot make these kinds of mistakes.
-Source: Sky Sports.
Critical? Yes, absolutely. Hazard struggled with Juanfran all match, and the right back had a major hand in the first and third Atleti goals as a result. But it's hardly devastating -- Mourinho's been asking for more from Hazard at both ends all season, and he's turned into the most important player at Chelsea as a result.
Now go look at the headlines we're getting. I'll wait. Have fun.
Remember: the press don't have an agenda against the club. Their agenda is to sell papers and get page views, and going after Chelsea tends to be a pretty good plan if that's your aim. Not that it makes their habit of twisting everything to be as sensationalist as possible any better.
Basically I want everyone at Chelsea to conduct press conferences in charades next season. At least it would be funny to watch then.
