Mourinho mocks Arsenal, Man City and United at Chelsea party

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho could not help himself as he took a swipe at the Premier League champions' top-four rivals at the club's end-of-season awards dinner, even employing graphics to point out the failings of Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United.

His performance was less off the cuff than that of Man United manager Louis van Gaal last week, but was equally as impressive, says the London Evening Standard.

And while the Chelsea manager did not name Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United during his presentation, the Daily Telegraph notes that he "left little to the imagination as he explained why his team won the Premier League".

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Manchester United?

Chelsea won at Old Trafford in April with just 30 per cent of the possession, prompting allegations that the team were "boring".

At the awards dinner, standing below a graphic of a team in red, he said: "There is one team that would like to play without goals. That team plays really well, the quality of the ball possession is really beautiful but no goals. They asked the international board of Fifa to play like this but were told it was not possible, that the bigger possession of the ball does not win matches."

Manchester City?

City and Chelsea were neck and neck at the turn of the year, with identical points, goal difference and goal scored records. However Chelsea lost only once more all season (against West Brom once the league was won) and won the title by eight points, scoring ten fewer goals than City in 2015, but conceding only 13.

Mourinho, speaking as a light blue team appeared on the screen, said: "The team... asked to play only with one goal. They were fantastic, scored a lot of goals, the goals came from every position but they never conceded goals because there was no goal. Again the international board told them you can't be champions because football is with two goals."

Arsenal?

The next team appeared on screen in a red and white kit, but with a caption pointing out that the season runs for nine months - a reference to the Gunners' purple patch this season, bookended by two less successful periods.

"The third team was almost there. They wanted to play with two goals, scoring some, also conceding some but they were fantastic. They scored really beautiful goals," said Mourinho. "But they asked the international board to play only between January and April. They were told 'no chance, you have to play between August and May'."

Chelsea

The fourth team to appear on screen wore Chelsea blue. Referring to them, Mourinho said: "Finally came another team. They wanted to play with the normal rules. And they know that to win matches they need to score one more goal than the opponent. They did it both ways, scoring a lot, conceding some or scoring one goal and keeping clean sheets.

"They played from August to May and sometimes they brought the bus," he added, finishing with a sly dig at Liverpool manager, and former Chelsea coach, Brendan Rodgers who once accused Chelsea of "parking the bus".