English Premier League: Chelsea 1-0 Everton
It took 88 minutes for Chelsea to find the net against a tenacious Everton side. The Blues keep their seven point lead over Manchester City who remarkably won at Stoke 4-1. Words from the managers:
Jose Mourinho (Chelsea)
‘I don’t remember a team that were champions without a couple of victories in the last minute, in my case for sure. Every time I’ve won a league title I had a couple of matches where I won in the last minute. That was the first time for us this season.
‘It was a very difficult match, it was a different Everton and when I say that I mean it as a compliment. They played with a low block and defended very well. They gave us the ball and used Lukaku to attack the spaces. They were a very difficult opponent and I’m so happy with the three points.’
The players’ will is more important than anything. The nucleus of everything is the players’ desire and you saw that today. A team without lots of important players, with Terry in trouble, Fabregas coming back from injury, Willian slightly injured, without Oscar and without Diego Costa. They showed fantastic spirit.’
Manuel Pellegrini (Manchester City)
“I’m very happy because we returned to our normal game this evening. I thought we played well in the first-half, but we were back to our best in the second period and scored three goals and could have had a couple more”.
“The most important thing was to win, but it is even better that we won in the style we did. We can’t worry about what Chelsea do – obviously it is better for us if they drop points, but the most important thing is that we returned to our normal selves again with the Champions League coming up”.
