Jose Mourinho: I'm not the bad guy

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho complained that he is always seen as “the bad guy” following the outcry after he branded Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger “a specialist in failure.”

Mourinho had hit back at his Gunners counterpart, referencing his inability to win a trophy since 2005, after the Frenchman had claimed the Portuguese tried to play down his team’s title chances because he “feared to fail.”

However, many of the subsequent headlines focused on Mourinho -- who has a history of controversial spats with other managers -- and the Blues boss has argued his notoriety is undeserved.

“It is always the same guy, the bad guy. One is polite [Wenger] and the other is the bad guy,” he said after watching his side suffer a 2-0 FA Cup fifth-round defeat at Manchester City on Sunday. 

Mourinho accepted Manuel Pellegrini’s men were good value for their win at the Etihad Stadium, but felt the hosts’ second goal, scored by Samir Nasri, should not have stood due to David Silva appearing to be offside before setting up the France international.

“I don’t think my team failed. I think City played much better than us and deserved much more to win,” he said.

“Today is simple to analyse: they were the best team and they won. Was the referee very poor in the second half? Yes. But even with a perfect referee would Chelsea win? No. The second goal was offside but we were never close to being dominant.”

Mourinho argued that City, whose Wednesday game against Sunderland was postponed because of bad weather, benefited from being fresher than his side, who drew 1-1 with West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday.

“One team played two days ago and the other had one week without competitive football. It was easy to see the difference,” he said.

Mourinho took striker Samuel Eto’o off at half-time but refused to blame the former Inter Milan player for the defeat.

“There are things I cannot say. There are things I can just think and keep to myself,” he said. “I don’t want to individualise to speak about my striker or my keeper or my left-back.”