Mourinho hits back in Costa & Fabregas feud,slam Sergio Ramos

angry man

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has hit back at Sergio Ramos and Vicente del Bosque over the injuries which kept Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas out of the Spain squad.

Both Costa and Fabregas were ultimately declared unable to play during the international break but were decisive for the Blues in the 2-0 win over West Brom on Saturday.

Real Madrid defender Ramos was quoted as saying certain players should show greater commitment to the international cause last week, though he later insisted he was not talking about the Chelsea duo.

And Mourinho has defended their decisions to withdraw, stating that the Spain team doctor was always part of the consultation process and suggesting Ramos has little place to comment.

"Since I've known Sergio Ramos he has been a fantastic football player, but he is not a doctor. He is not a doctor and I am the same. I do my job the best I can but I am not a doctor," he is quoted as saying by theMirror.

"My doctor and the doctor of the Spanish national team, they had the scans and they decided that the player was not in the condition to play.

"I am nobody to go against it and I don't think Sergio did a medicine Masters in the last couple of years to understand about it.

"[Vincent] Kompany didn't play for Belgium against Wales and he played today [Saturday]. Has he a compromise with his national team? I think he has. He is the captain of Belgium.

"Did he, how do you say, 'cheat' by not playing against Wales to play today? I don't think he did. So we all accept that he was injured."

Mourinho took another swipe at Del Bosque in what is becoming a persistent feud over the fitness of Costa and his role in the Spain side.

"I trust my doctor 100 per cent. If Del Bosque doesn't trust his doctor that is his problem, not my problem. I speak with my doctor and I believe in what my doctor tells me. Nothing else. No problem," he said.

"Fabregas was in a doubtful situation, Diego no. Diego recovered totally from his problem with these two weeks that he had to rest and to improve his injury.

"Fabregas is different. Fabregas survived. Diego no, Diego now is in great condition."

Dortmund rejected an offer from Real for me - Gündogan

injured boy

"Real Madrid made an offer for me but my club rejected it. At that time I still had two more seasons left on my contract. But also, my injury wrecked it all. I wasn't able to play for 14 months", the German international midfielder said.

"Now I want to look towards the future and make up for lost time with sporting success. Playing abroad has always been one of my main objectives. If I do leave here one day, I'd like to play in Spain or England", the Borussia Dortmund player added.

CAN IT GET WORSE FOR LIVERPOOL

down and dusted

The scene of one of the most dramatic draws in Premier League history in May is arguably the most atmospheric of all the Premier League stadiums.

For Brendan Rodgers' team, this intimate, tight-knit venue is merely the most vivid reminder of their all-too obvious frailties.

Squandering a three-goal lead in the final 11 minutes on that dramatic evening at the end of last season virtually ended their title hopes.

This latest Selhurst setback in monsoon conditions may not have prompted floods of tears but that they so deservedly surrendered their lead and slipped behind the hosts demonstrated how far into mediocrity Liverpool have slipped.

The team second bottom in the league before kick-off came from a goal down to win 3-1 and provide the kind of attacking thrust, resilience and game management of which the Merseysiders appear totally incapable at the moment.

In Yannick Bolasie, Palace had the most dangerous attacker on the pitch, Mile Jedinak was the game's most authoritative midfielder and Scott Dann the sturdiest defender.

By contrast, Liverpool looked like a team of misfits.

Jamie Carragher knows what is required from those who wear the iconic red shirt, and he was scathing in his criticism of those with whom he once shared a dressing room. 

"Something's not right, they're getting bullied out of games," observed the former defender. "The end of last season, when they came here, we said mentally, physically weak - same again. Nothing's changed."

At least, back then, only a few years ago, Liverpool had a destructive strike force and pace to burn across the front five. Not any more.

The Merseysiders' abject start to the season cannot now be termed a blip. That would be an insult to rational analysis. Their run of horror results, and average performances, has lasted for three-and-a-half months and not only ended their title hopes before all the leaves have fallen off the trees, but leaves them needing a radical turnaround to even clinch the top-four spot that was their minimum objective back in August.

Hindsight tells us that Luis Suarez's brilliance last season was, if anything, underrated. Stripped of the Uruguayan's explosive cocktail of excellence and enthusiasm, as well as his former partner-in-chaos Daniel Sturridge, and Rodgers' team looks deficient in virtually all areas.

The back five are an accident waiting to happen, the midfield struggle when they are not controlling possession and the attack provides only rare flashes of inspiration. In short, Liverpool have sold a unique player and transformed a virtually unstoppabe team into a rank average one.

The grand sum of over €150 million spent on refurbishing a side that finished second last season now looks as badly spent as the disastrous Tottenham overhaul 12 months earlier.

Adam Lallana provided the pass of the match to put Rickie Lambert through on goal for a slickly taken opener, his first goal in the shirt of his boyhood club, but it is symptomatic of how far Liverpool have fallen that it was their only shot on target in the entire match.

Suarez appears to have taken Liverpool's entire attacking threat to Barcelona with him. Raheem Sterling looks exhausted, Phillipe Coutinho flits in and out of matches and Sturridge appears to be a victim of hereditary physical weaknesses and inappropriate training methods.

And they are the best players. The others are either off the pace (Steven Gerrard, Jordan Henderson, Dejan Lovren) or patently not good enough (Simon Mignolet, Mario Balotelli, Martin Skrtel).

Lallana oozes class and Alberto Moreno, dropped for this match, should develop into an accomplished left-back, but Fenway Sports Group might want to investigate more thoroughly the value of the recruitment system they established in the wake of the Damien Comolli sacking.

The American owners have not got much bang for their buck. And there is no glimmer of hope on the horizon.

LIONEL MESSI - ALL 401 GOALS IN HIS CAREER

CRISTIANO RONALDO TESTED TO THE LIMITED

Chennaiyin FC extend lead at the top with a 3-0 win over Mumbai City FC

top of the table

Mumbai City FC’s run of five straight clean sheets was brought to an end by Chennaiyin FC as emerged 3-0 winners in a key game at the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. Bruno Pelissari, who starred for Chennai after coming on as a substitute for Elano in the last game, was once again a bright spark as he helped his team to a crucial road win.

Leading goal scorers Elano and John Stiven Mendoza were absent for Chennai along with defender Gouramangi Singh while star striker Nicolas Anelka missed out for Mumbai. Syed Rahim Nabi and Tiago Ribeiro came in for Anelka and Subhash Singh for Mumbai while Pelissari earned himself a starting spot replacing Elano and Balwant Singh coming in for Mendoza.

In the end, some good finishing from Chennai and calamitous defending from Mumbai led to an easy win for the league leaders.  

A game of high stakes and one with so much potential fallout saw a very cagey first half with the game being very scrappy. Neither team could find much penetration with their passing and were guilty of giving away possession too many times, quite easily at that.

Chances were few and far between with defensive errors looking more likely to be the source of a breakthrough as compared to any incisive play. Mumbai had the first one as early as the 5th minute when midfielder Jan Stohanzl made a good run into the box, but he was a touch early to receive Johan Letzelter’s cross and ended up getting bad contact on the ball.

Mumbai had another really good chance when Bernard Mendy was dispossessed and Andre Moritz shifted the ball onto his right foot before taking a shot. It was blocked by Gennaro Bracigliano in the Chennai goal and the rebound fell to Ribeiro who smashed it into a defender.

Chennai produced a few good openings, but were mostly restricted to taking shots from outside the box with Pelissari, Jeje Lalpekhlua and Balwant all having attempts from long range. The visitors though managed to finish the first half stronger, retaining more possession and applying pressure through a few corners.

There was another setback for Mumbai in the period as playmaker Moritz pulled up with a hamstring strain, in what looked like a recurrence of the injury from the Goa game, and was taken off to be replaced by Freddie Ljungberg who was making his own return from a hamstring strain.

Chennai seized the momentum in the second half looking sharper than the hosts and almost took the lead immediately after the restart as Balwant stole the ball off Manuel Friedrich on the edge of the box to set up Pelissari. The Brazilian’s shot though was high and wide, but the warning had been served.

Off the resulting goal kick, Mumbai gave the ball away again and Pelissari once more found himself on the ball and this time his long shot brought out a punch save from Paul. As the half wore on, it looked ever more likely like Chennai were the team going to get the goal. After saving a Tiago Ribeiro free-kick, Bracigliano quickly released the ball to Harmanjot Khabra who had acres of space to run into and deliver a cross to Balwant whose header lacked power and was gathered by Paul.

The breakthrough eventually came on 72 minutes as Mumbai produced a comedy of errors to shoot themselves in the foot. Chennai captain Bojan Djordjic played a good long ball forward to Balwant who tried hard, but failed to get to it in time. Pavel Cmovs somehow managed to make a mess of the clearance and allowed Balwant an opportunity to sneak in. The Indian forward’s dive was again a near miss and Mumbai defender Peter Costa ended up going over him leaving Pelissari completely free to slot the ball past Paul.

Chennai were beginning to take control of the match with Mumbai hardly registering a threat going forward and six minutes later Chennai had the insurance goal as Mumbai once again went to sleep on a corner as the defence pretty much stopped playing after Paul came out to punch the initial delivery. While Mumbai seemingly were waiting for a whistle, Chennai were alert to the situation and left-back Dhanachandra Singh got on the ball and coolly slotted the ball past the stationary Mumbai defenders.

It was to get better for the away team as the home side imploded going in search of the equalizer. Substitute Cristian Hidalgo put away a sweet, curling free-kick past Paul after being fouled by Letzelter just outside the box.

It was another heavy defeat for Mumbai against Chennai after the defeat from earlier in the tournament and it sees them dropping to sixth place in the table on goal difference. Chennai meanwhile extended their advantage at the top of the table over Atletico de Kolkata to three points. Mumbai’s clean sheet record did go, but their worrying goal drought continued as they failed to score for the third game in a row. Coach Peter Reid and his team now have a fight on their hands to make the semi-finals.

A player from another age - LIONEL MESSI

WONDER BOY

In the end, it was against Sevilla. By cruising past Telmo Zarra's 251-goal record, Lionel Messi has declared himself the highest goalscorer in la Liga in all its history.

In a little more than 10 years after making his debut at Barcelona, Messi has managed to better Zarra's record that took the mythical player 17 years to achieve. That said, Zarra hung up his boots with an average strike-rate that 'La Pulga' still has to better.

Another achievement that Messi has to equal is that of putting the ball in the back of the net six times in just the one match - something that Zarra acheived in 1950 against Lleida. The Barça forward's record while playing at Barça is four, which he has managed to do on three occasions.

Something that Messi beat Zarra at from an early age, was just that – scoring his first league goal at an early age. 17, to be precise, while Zarra broke his own personal duck at the age of 19.

What is quite clear is that the Messi goal-machine is showing no signs of stalling just yet. At 27, the pint-sized Argentine still has a lot of football in his boots and there doesn't seem anyone around that might give him a run for his money as far as this record is concerned. The player currently plying his trade in la Liga that comes near the Argentine is Cristiano Ronaldo, but he hasn't even reached the 200-goal mark yet. Messi would have to take his foot of the gas considerably to allow the Portuguese to catch up.

REAL ONE GAME FROM MATCHING MOU'S WINNING STREAK

willpower and concentration

Real Madrid keep marching on and, on a night when all the talk was about Leo Messi's historic feats, Carlo Ancelotti had a personal record of his own to celebrate. The fixture in Eibar was his 50th league game in charge of 'Los Blancos' and he has racked up 37 victories, his best-ever mark at this stage, beating the 36 he managed at Chelsea.

The Italian has forged a unit that is running as smoothly as clockwork, whoever's in the line-up. Indeed, Luka Modric's absence wasn't felt in the slightest in the Basque Country.

This Real side are nothing if not consistent and Ancelotti now looks poised to set a new longest winning streak at the club. He is currently on 14 wins in a row, one behind the record of 15 shared by Miguel Muñoz and José Mourinho. He has the chance to match this tally in Wednesday's trip to Basel and then move out ahead with another victory away in Málaga.

One of the lads
Leaving aside his tactical acumen, Ancelotti has won over the squad due to his human qualities. He is a natural leader and his open, approachable attitude and sense of humour make him an extremely popular boss.

The good vibes in the Real dressing room were illustrated by two episodes involving Cristiano Ronaldo during the Eibar match. First Carletto could be seen imitating the star's celebration when CR7 made it 2-0 and then the Portuguese ace winked at the coach after being substituted shortly after scoring his second goal.

CR7 ON HIS WAY TO BEING A 60-GOAL PICHICHI

sky is the limit

Ronaldo picked up a brace against Eibar and there isn't a rival in la Liga that can resist him.

29 out of 29 in Spain. Wearing the white shirt, he has racked up 50 victims out of the 51 rivals he has faced in total. Only Dinamo Zagreb has managed to keep all his efforts out of the back of their net.

Against Eibar, Cristiano scored his first just before half time, with a right-footed rocket of a shot that flew into the corner. Carvajal took the ball to the goal line and passed back to the Portuguese, who knew exactly what to do. That was his 19th goal from his 11th league game. To come would be his 20th, from a penalty, making this the best start to a season in the history of the Spanish league.

Ronaldo is running amok, tearing records down, threatening to become the league's top goalscorer of the season with, if he carries on at this rate, a total of 63. Mind-bending figures, Ronaldo is not of this world.

Just a couple of goals away from the 200-mark, the player picked up a brace and would have gone for the hat-trick if Ancelotti hadn't decided to rest him. After scoring his team's 4th he marched off to the dugout for a little r&r, the game now a done deal. Apart from his two goals, he had also served up an assist to James. A perfect performance that Ancelotti and his assistants congratulated him for. He left Ipurúa with 198 goals from 176 matches. Welcome to planet Cristiano.

REAL MADRID ARE FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS

well oiled machine

Real Madrid were poetry in motion with Modric and Kroos in midfield.The Croat's injury set the alarm bells ringing, but after the game against Eibar it is clear that the 'Los Blancos' goal machine is running like clockwork, and also has the advantage that you can change out some of the pieces and its precision does not falter.

There is no more room for the debates over the system or the best players to fit into the formation. Ancelotti reverted to a 4-3-3 after the classic 4-4-2 had been imposed by an absolute majority.

Real dominated possession with a new face in the position where Modric used to play. It was none other than Isco, who is determined to triumph with 'Los Blancos' no matter how many obstacles are placed in his path.

The Spaniard stepped into Khedira's shoes and worked just as hard, if not harder, managing to steal 12 balls. In addition, he showed his class at holding onto the ball and distributing it via the correct channels, supported by Toni Kroos, who by the looks of things is set to achieve much greater things than his predecessor in the position, Xabi Alonso. Real Madrid have hit cruise speed and it appears that no amount of turbulence is going to throw them off course.

Ancelotti's side have scored in every game and all of their victories have been by a margin of more than one goal.

An easy win against Eibar

another great win

Cristiano Ronaldo scored a brace while James and Karim Benzema also found the back of the net to give Real all three points against the newly-promoted side from the Basque Country.
Isco who was chosen to fill the Croatian’s traditional role in the center of the pitch alongside Toni Kroos
With midfielder Luka Modric sustaining an injury while on international duty, manager Carlo Ancelotti had to make a tweak to his normal starting XI, and it was Isco who was chosen to fill the Croatian's traditional role in the center of the pitch alongside Toni Kroos. Out on the flanks James manned the left while Gareth Bale was stationed on the right with the Colombian and Welshman tasked with helping Ronaldo and Benzema up front in attack. In defense it was a full-strength back four consisting of Dani Carvajal, Pepe, Sergio Ramos and Marcelo in front of goalkeeper Iker Casillas.
Eibar looked very much up for the task in the first 20 minutes as the modest Basque club went toe-to-toe with their illustrious visitors. The best chance early on came from Bale whose long-range free kick rang off the crossbar after a touch from Eibar goalkeeper Xabi Irureta. The rebound fell to Ramos but the Andalusian defender failed to hit the target.
The Ballon d'Or favorite struck a spinning shot that rolled into the top right corner of the net to make it 2-0
Good fortune was on Real’s side in the 23rd minute and it helped them open the scoring with a James header. Carvajal led a charge into the Eibar area and fed Ronaldo on the right. The Portuguese passed to a clearly offside Benzema, but the ball simply hit off the Frenchman and back to Ronaldo. Right as the ball was about to roll over the end line, Ronaldo lifted a ball back across at the far post and James was there to nod it in.
On the half hour mark Eibar had the equalizer on the boot of Saúl after a brilliant cross in from Ander Capa, but Casillas timed his block to perfection to deny the Asturian striker. Eibar were left to rue that missed chance as Los Blancos doubled their lead a minute before the break. Carvajal did well to cross for Ronaldo and the Ballon d'Or favorite struck a spinning shot that rolled into the top right corner of the net to make it 2-0.
Real looked to salt away the match in the second half and Benzema nearly did so in the 54th minute, only for Irureta to come up with a big save to keep his side in it. But the former Lyon man would get another chance in the 70th minute and this time he did not
waste the opportunity in slamming in a shot after a nifty pullback by James which Eibar thought had gone out of play.
Ronaldo made it four by converting an 83rd minute penalty after the Portuguese's previous free kick had struck the arm of Eibar's Raúl Albentosa in the area. Ronaldo swept in the spot kick into the lower left corner of the net past Irureta to complete the scoring and sending Real on their way back to the Champions League on a winning note.