Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho takes aim at Liverpool's Luis Suarez with “kings of the penalties” attack http://www.mirror.coChelsea boss Jose Mourinho takes aim at Liverpool's Luis Suarez with “kings of the penalties” attack
By Martin Lipton
"You know the kings of the penalties, you know where they are – and they’re not here,” says Blues chief
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Jose Mourinho risked opening a title run-in war of words with Liverpool as he made a coded attack on Luis Suarez.
While Anfield’s Uruguayan star was not mentioned by name there was no question over who was in Mourinho’s sights as he turned a question about his side’s predatory instincts into a rant about the top flight’s “kings of the penalties”.
Rather than defending Samuel Eto’o over the controversial and decisive spot-kick that saw Spurs defender Younes Kaboul dismissed, Mourinho went on the attack.
The Chelsea manager said: “We had a big opportunity in the second minute of the game, when other players with other shirts would go for a penalty and a red card for the keeper.
“Hazard doesn’t do that. He tries to go away from the keeper and he misses from a difficult angle.
“But other players in this league, in that situation, they attack the keeper. I did not see a video of Eto’o and the penalty but I want to.
“But you know the kings of the penalties, you know where they are – and they’re not here.”
Mourinho hailed his wily old penalty box "fox" Samuel Eto'o after the win against Tottenham.
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"We cope well with the difficult moments in the game," said Mourinho. "We are team that doesn't panic when the opponent has the ball, don't panic when we miss two or three passes and the crowd boo a little bit.
"So we are not panicky. We are stable in our game and that's a very good quality, especially for a team with a lot of young people like we have. And when the chance arrived Eto'o killed the game."
Killed it indeed, although with the help of referee Michael Oliver. Younes Kaboul was mystified when his challenge on the falling Eto'o was seen as a penalty, stunned when the whistler produced a red card.
Eden Hazard meted out the punishment beating from the spot, before Demba Ba came off the bench to profit from two howlers, first by stand-in centre-back Sandro and then Kyle Walker.
Eto'o was not even due to play, until Fernando Torres pulled a groin in the warm-up, with the Spaniard facing at least two weeks out.
But the Cameroonian was alert from the outset - a wrong flag denied him a free-kick which would have brought a red card for Hugo Lloris inside 30 seconds - and while Mourinho revealed last week that he is disappointed by his contribution outside Stamford Bridge, this time he spoke more reverentially.
Mourinho added: "In the second half, Eto'o was brilliant. You can speak about Vertonghen's mistake but it was only Vertonghen's mistake because Eto'o is there.
"If Eto'o is not there, if Eto'o doesn't read the situation the defender or the goalkeeper will get the ball.
"Hopefully he can start scoring away too. He had some good matches away. At West Ham he played very well. He's had good matches. The fact he scored more at home is down to his qualities.
"He's not 20 years old super-fast player like he was 10 years ago, so he needs to be close to the goal, he needs his feet in the box and he's very intelligent in the way he moves.
"Remember the goals he's scored here. He created the goal against Cardiff when the goalkeeper dropped the ball, he scored a goal against WBA when Liam Ridgewell controlled the ball and he came form behind. Then on Saturday he reads Vertonghen's mistake. He's a fox. They are fox goals."
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