Jose Mourinho hails his amazing Chelsea squad for Hammers victory

JOSE MOURINHO hailed his band of "brothers" for their 1-0 win at West Ham and said he would celebrate with a lie-in this morning.

Jose Mourinho has hailed his Chelsea squad after their victory over West HamACTION

Jose Mourinho has hailed his Chelsea squad after their victory over West Ham

And he urged his players to be just as restrained in the aftermath of Chelsea's Eden Hazard-inspired victory after revealing that Nemanja Matic twisted his ankle in the post-match celebrations at Wembley on Sunday after the Capital One Cup final.

The holding midfielder was banned for last night's game but Mourinho revealed that even if he wasn't he would not be fit to play after appearing on the pitch at the end of Sunday's game in full kit despite also being suspended for that match.

"Matic is injured and he got an injury celebrating the cup," Mourinho said. "I'm not kidding! It's not a big injury, but today he couldn't have played. He twisted his ankle.

"If he had not been suspended, he could not have played today. He had shin pads on Sunday, but he didn't have tape on!

"He will be in training on Saturday or Sunday and he will play against Paris."

Mourinho was pleased with the way his players fought for their win, maintaining a five-point advantage over Manchester City.

"I want to sleep tomorrow until midday," he said. "Today easily we could have lost two points. My team were brothers on the pitch and that is important if you are to win the most difficult league in the world.

Eden Hazard scored the winner for ChelseaACTION

Eden Hazard scored the winner for Chelsea

"The way West Ham play, nobody is better than them. They are the best at the way they play.

"It is not just to play football, the pressure, the tension and the emotion, my players were fantastic. We couldn't kill the game and these three points are massive for us.

"What I see is that, in every title race, you have different matches to play. Matches where you need your quality to win. Others where you need luck to win.

My team were brothers on the pitch and that is important if you are to win the most difficult league in the world

Jose Mourinho

"Others still where you need to adapt to the opponent. Today was one of those. We had to adapt.

"John Terry, Gary Cahill and Kurt Zouma to the direct football... Courtois was amazing in everything... the midfield were trying to keep the ball and reach the attacking players to kill the game.

"And Eden Hazard is fantastic," Mourinho continued. "He is punished by opponents in a very hard way.

"Today, not in a violent way, just an aggressive football way because they tried to stop him but the kid is playing, scoring and defending."

For all the eulogies, West Ham manager Sam Allardyce felt the Belgium international's goal was offside.

"Kevin Nolan was offside at Old Trafford when we scored to make it 2-2. There was half an inch of his nose offside.

"There were about six inches of Hazard's body offside today, so that's disappointing.

"But I couldn't ask for any more. It was a terrific game of football, a fabulous effort.

"But we were on the wrong side of the result. We pick ourselves up. If we keep playing like that, we'll start winning again." ends

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