The Chelsea strike force had a great weekend, all of them contributing to a fantastic 4-0 win over London rivals Tottenham at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
Samuel Eto’o clinically pounced on a mistake by Spurs defender Jan Vertonghen to open the scoring in the 56th minute. The game had been mostly forgettable up until that point and only a few minutes later Eto’o won a penalty after Younes Kaboul fouled him in the area. Eden Hazard obliged from the spot.
The largely forgotten Demba Ba came on as a substitute and compounded Spurs misery with two goals in two minutes to put the final nails in the coffin, potentially ending any aspirations Tottenham had of a fourth places finish and Mourinho was quick to praise the striker.
‘Ba is very important,’ he said. ‘I proved earlier in the season that I was right to have three strikers because when one is injured you need the other two. It’s one of the best decisions we made to keep three strikers.
‘It’s good for him that he scored. They’re not the winning goals but they’re goals and they give confidence. He played for 90 minutes for his national team midweek and he came back and scored two, so that’s good.’
Mourinho and Eto’o have hit the headlines after recent comments made by the Portugese but the Special One was full of praise for the Cameroon striker.
‘In the second half Eto’o was brilliant, said the manager. ‘Vertonghen’s mistake was only a mistake because Eto’o was there. If Eto’o was not there, if Eto’o doesn’t read the situation the defender or the goalkeeper will get the ball.
‘We had two big chances in the first half. The one for Eden Hazard and a two-against-one – Eto’o and Schurrle – when Eto’o makes a decision which I like because I like strikers to be sometimes selfish and he missed the chance.
‘We are not so clinical that we score with our first chance but in the second half we started better and when the chance arrived Eto’o killed the game.
‘He’s not super-fast 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.
‘He scored against Cardiff when the goalkeeper dropped the ball, he scored a goal against West Brom when Ridgewell controlled the ball and he came from behind. Now he reads Vertonghen’s mistake. These are fox goals.’
However Mourinho expects the forward selection over the next few weeks to be between Ba and Eto’o
‘Torres has a muscular problem,’ he reports, ‘and even when they are small it is always a couple of weeks. He has to go for scans.
‘He’s already had two problems, in both knees, both ligaments, but his recovery was faster than we expected. He also had a little muscular problem and now he’s having another one. Sometimes it happens. There are other players who have the same. Others have a complete season without problems.’
Quotes from chelseafc.com
