After taking on and defeating the Thailand XI/All-Stars in the first of their two post-season friendlies, Chelsea FC touched down in Sydney this morning ahead of their fixture with Sydney FC on Tuesday night with Jose Mourinho vowing to put all the big guns on show.
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The Blues ran out 1-0 winners in what was really a bizarre and non-descript game yesterday in Bangkok, for which yours truly tried desperately to put together some semblance of a match report. The fixture ended up being a youth parade for Mourinho with very few senior players featuring. However, speaking to a standing-room only press conference down under, the boss promised that this would not be the case in a few days time.
‘This is what we are going to try to do,’ Mourinho said when asked about whether Chelsea would field their best team on Tuesday.
He also talked up the responsibility of representing the Premier League as the newly-crowned champions.
‘You cannot lose. You cannot go just for fun. You have to go for the result. It’s a matter of prestige and responsibility. Tuesday’s match is our last match of this season, so we want to compete and give a good show.’
This is great news for our Australian friends who have come out in numbers to greet Mourinho’s men. Thousands had gathered at the airport to greet mob the players as they stepped off the aircraft (more on which Lee Fraser has here) while more than 83,000 spectators are expected to pack into ANZ Bank Stadium to take in the game.
And if you think the Chelsea players may be tired and not really up for the exhibition match, the excitement of the fans have ensured the opposite.
‘We were all pretty tired and when we came through we all lit up,’ said club captain John Terry. ‘The welcome was overwhelming and we got mobbed a little bit but it was nice and we’re delighted to be here.’
It’s not just CFC fans that will be lifted by Jose’s comments either. Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold was evidently over-whelmed by just sharing a room with such stars.
‘It’s incredible to be sitting at the same table with three world football superstars. The A-League is young but it’s developing further and further, and for Chelsea to add to the game of football in this country is mind-blowing.’
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Sydney lost the A-League (Australia’s premier football competition) Grand Final to Melbourne Victory a couple of weeks ago, but have been more than compensated by welcoming Chelsea as well as Tottenham Hotspur into their city. Their match against Spurs raked in over 70,000 fans as Harry Kane slotted the sole goal in a 1-0 victory.
While I personally do not agree with the notion of post-season tours after long and gruelling campaigns, when you see the insane levels of excitement from the overseas supporters you can’t help but feel slightly pleased for these people who never get a chance to see their favourite stars in person. After all, they do contribute vast amounts of money to the club with regard to merchandise sales so isn’t it fair that they be rewarded from time-to-time?
I’ll leave that debate for another day. For now, Chelsea are there and seem to be enjoying it. Tuesday will be the last stop on the brief tour after which the players will be released for their holidays, or in the case of a few of them international duty.
In the meantime I’ll leave with you with Mourinho’s response when asked if he had anything to say to Arsène Wenger after Arsenal’s FA Cup win:
‘No.’
Some things will never change.
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