http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/John-Obi-Mikel-c18882 in the game against Manchester United in the Capital One Cup, despite the player being involved in a controversial situation with referee Mark Clattenburg.
In the last meeting between the two teams there were complaints that Clattenburg went on to use inappropriate language with the player.
The Blues have gone on to lodge complaints in regards to the referees behaviour, but so far the issue is being looked into.
When talking about his decision to play a few of his players in the game, while highlighting Mikel and how he was feeling going into the game, the Blues manager is reported to have said: “I spoke to my players in the last couple of days and made sure they
were in the right frame of mind to play, so I had no concerns in picking the team I wanted to"
“First of all we had both midfield players booked in the first half and secondly I wanted to change a little bit the team tactically.”
“He’s [Mikel] fully focused on playing football. I wouldn’t have played him if I had any doubt.”
The match saw Chelsea edge past United with the final score card reading five goals to four in favour of the Blues.
Di Matteo is quite happy with the way the game played out, and admitted that the fans were probably delighted to have seen so many goals get scored.
However, he is even happier with the fact that his side ended up winning the game and coming out on top, which has seen them progress to the quarter finals of the tournament.
"It was a very exciting game of football to watch, a typical cup game, quite open at times, and a lot of mistakes from both teams because there were a lot of young players involved in the game.”
“I’m very pleased with the players that I picked tonight. They performed on a big stage like tonight and they’re going to play an important role in our season.”
Chelsea now have the motivation and push that they need going into the weekend’s games to try and get back to their winning ways, following their first defeat of the season this past weekend.
However, they team can't get complacent just yet, since they have to face a number of rather competitive opponents in the coming weeks.
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