Mourinho will never change

What pathetic petulance.

Jose Mourinho excelled himself at the weekend with his 'four-point' press conference at which he allowed no questions, but merely made four points of 'congratulations' after Chelsea's home defeat by Sunderland on Saturday evening.

He congratulated:

1. His players.
2. Sunderland on their win.
3. Referee Mike Dean on his 'unbelievable', 'fantastic' performance.
4. Referee supervisor Mike Riley for 'the way the championship is going.

At least 3 and 4 were obviously sarcastic, but, I suppose, if asked, he could easily deny that and say, 'Listen to what I said...'

Talk about an ungracious, sore loser. It was claimed that Mourinho, on his return to English football this season, had changed. Could we expect a more magnanimous, more gracious Mourinho?

Well, it appears, no, not a bit of it.

Losing your 77-game unbeaten home league record must be annoying, but trying to blame the referee, and - of all things - the referees' supervisor, for Chelsea's home defeat, is verging on embarrassing.

Mind you, we assume he's making some implied reference to Dean's award of a penalty for the foul by Azpilicueta or Jozy Altidore. Maybe not: maybe he's annoyed at Dean's failure to penalise Chelsea's Ramires for a blatant elbow on Sebastian Larsson, only a couple of yards in front of Dean; or the failure of the officials to deal with Chelsea assistant coach Rui Faria in a more comprehensive and timely fashion when he had to be held back from attacking Dean.

It's all rather tiresome.

Tevez wakes City from their sleep

It's advantage the Blues after Manchester City beat Manchester United 2-1 in last night's Carling Cup semi-final first leg.

And it was - so far - sweet revenge for City's inspiration, Carlos Tevez, who scored both their goals to remind United what they could have had if they had chosen to shell out for the Argentinian during the summer. Instead Tevez went to City and his form in the last few weeks has been stupendous.

Last night City were soporific for most of the first half, except for Tevez's insatiable appetite closing United down - but he couldn't do it all on his own.

Ryan Giggs put United ahead after only 17 minutes, but, despite long periods of possession, they didn't increase their lead; there seemed little need, as they were dominating so much.

Then fate took a hand. Craig Bellamy was adjudged to have been fouled in the box by Rafael and referee Mike Dean gave a penalty. TV replays showed that the fould had been committed outside the box, but Dean did not have that benefit. Tevez lashed the penalty down the middle: 1-1.

Now the power was with City. Now United looked a one-man show as Wayne Rooney put in huge efforts to raise his team from their over-confident slumber.

Tevez had the momentum. He headed the winner after 65 minutes as United dozed in defence, and the Reds couldn't find a way back.

It looks set for a tasty second leg at Old Trafford next Wednesday