Mourinho mind games begin as Man Utd draw Chelsea in FA Cup

With a month to go before he takes his Manchester United side back to his old stamping ground at Chelsea in the quarter finals of the FA Cup, Jose Mourinho has made "an early start to the mind games", reports the Daily Mail.

The United manager says the Premier League champions-elect will have more time to prepare for the game as they are cruising to the title and have few other distractions. United, on the other hand, are caught up in a dog-fight for a top four finish in the league and face Southampton on the EFL Cup final next month. They are also still involved in the Europa League.

Asked about the tie, Mourinho said: "Probably Chelsea can only think about that because I think they are champions and they have nothing else to fight for... I have so many things to think about."

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

Chelsea thumped Mourinho's United 4-0 when they visited London in October. It was the first visit back to Stamford Bridge for the former Chelsea boss since taking over at Man Utd and the result was conclusive.

However, the result provoked a change at Old Trafford and United have lost only twice in 27 games since – once in the Europa League and once in the EFL Cup.

Mourinho could find himself up against one of his key lieutenants when United do return to Stamford Bridge, if veteran John Terry gets his way.

"Terry played a full 90 minutes as Chelsea progressed to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a comfortable win [over Wolves] at Molineux and is determined to give his manager a selection headache during the run in," reports the London Evening Standard.

The former England captain said. "The main thing for our team, especially for the likes of me and Cesc Fabregas who haven't been playing regularly, is when we get the opportunity to play, we come in and keep winning and we keep that momentum."