Jose Mourinho has accused Manuel Pellegrini of hypocrisy for criticising his team following Chelsea's 1-1 draw against Manchester City on Sunday.
The Portuguese referred to his City counterpart twice as "Mr Pellegrino" in a seemingly deliberate slip, and hit back after the Chilean branded Chelsea "a small team" for what he perceived to be defensive tactics by the Premier League leaders.
Mourinho was Pellegrini's replacement at Real Madrid in 2010 and the
pair have had an awkward relationship since, with the Chelsea manager
claiming the 61-year-old is guilty of double standards in his comments
about opponents.
"Pellegrino many times says he never speaks about me and my team but
he keeps doing the same thing," he told his postgame news conference. "I
am the one that does as he says. I don't comment on his words. Don't
ask me about his words, I am not interested in that."
Mourinho used his argument to decline to discuss Frank Lampard's equaliser against his former club.
The 36-year-old, who played for the Portuguese in both of his spells
at Chelsea, scored 211 goals for the Blues and got his first goal for
City against them to level the game.
His former manager added: "I don't speak about players from other
teams, I am sorry. I don't speak about Frank. To speak about Frank is to
speak about my past with Frank, the player he was for what he means in
my career.
"I will never tire of speaking about this. But the moment he is a Man
City player, he is a Man City player. I don't speak about other teams'
players. Mr Pellegrino, instead of speaking about other teams' players,
should speak about Frank Lampard. I am Chelsea manager, I speak about my
players. My players did fantastic."
Mourinho's team extended their lead at the Premier League summit to
three points and despite losing their lead late on, he argued it was a
positive result.
"It is one point won because we arrive here leaders with two points
more than [the team in] second and we leave the stadium with three
points' lead," he added. "I don't look to direct opponents, I don't look
to other clubs in a special way.
"I look to the table and we are leaders with three points. We come
here to a super-difficult stadium and a super-difficult opponent and we
leave to better conditions than we arrived, so good."
