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Jose Mourinho explains the decision to block Demba Ba's move to Arsenal

Mourinho wouldn't send Demba Ba to Arsenal, as he didn't want to strengthen a rival

Scott Heavey

As we reached the last day of the transfer window, we knew Chelsea were looking to move some of their surplus at center forward. Demba Ba seemed the odd man out, and it sounded like there were plenty of clubs with interest.

At the close of the day, Demba Ba was still a Blue and Romelu Lukaku had been loaned to Everton. I'd have to imagine this happened in part due to Chelsea's refusal to send Ba to Arsenala decision Mourinho explained:

‘We didn’t accept Arsenal’s offer for Demba Ba because the signing of Ozil makes them title contenders.’

Frankly, this is one of the more sensible things I've heard about deadline day. As it stands, I have a hard time seeing Arsenal contending for the title. That said, it's not hard to picture them doing just that if they had added some much needed depth.

What confuses me about this is the decision to send Victor Moses to Liverpool if we weren't willing to strengthen a squad like Arsenal. I don't see either side as being overly likely to finish ahead of Chelsea during a 38-match campaign, and I honestly don't see a big enough difference between Liverpool and Arsenal that I'd rule out strengthening one and not the other. I'm certainly not upset with the decision not to send Ba to Arsenal, I'm just left wondering why that logic hasn't been applied more often.

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