Tottenham lost out in a nine-goal thriller on Wednesday night
Jose Mourinho has always been good for a memorable quote.
Never the type of manager to deliver ‘The lads worked hard, we go again next Saturday’ platitudes, the Tottenham boss has been serving the press entertaining soundbites ever since his arrival at Chelsea in June 2004.
It was five months into his time at Stamford Bridge that he took a dig at Arsenal which has resurfaced in light of his Tottenham side’s latest result.
They were knocked out of the FA Cup by Everton on Wednesday night, with the hosts winning a dramatic encounter 5-4 after extra time.
Mourinho has looked upon that particular scoreline with derision in the past.
In November 2004, Arsenal were Chelsea’s biggest rivals in the title race. After Arsene Wenger’s men beat Tottenham 5-4, Mourinho couldn’t resist a swipe at the Frenchman’s team.
As quoted by the BBC, he said: “Five-four is a hockey score, not a football score.
“In a three-against-three training match, if the score reaches 5-4 I send the players back to the dressing rooms as they are not defending properly.
“So to get a result like that in a game of 11 against 11 is disgraceful.”
In that instance, Mourinho was criticising the team who had won 5-4.
In 2021, with his men having been on the wrong end of that scoreline, he told BT Sport: “I enjoyed it, and I didn’t enjoy it.
“I enjoyed the way we played when we had the ball. Since the first minute, immediately a great situation, (Erik) Lamela header, good save by (Robin) Olsen, and that was just the beginning.
“We had the ball, we created, we had a great dynamic, great movement. Scored goals, created more chances.
“Great character to fight against incredible mistakes but attacking football only wins matches when you don’t make more defensive mistakes than what you create.
“We scored four goals and four goals was not enough.”
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