Chelsea’s ‘cage’ stopped Crouch – Jose

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Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said his side got their tactics spot on in their impressive 2-0 win at Stoke City.

John Terry – on his 650th Blues appearance – opened the scoring inside two minutes and Cesc Fabregas made sure of the points in the closing stages.

Mourinho, whose side are three points clear at the top of the Premier League, said dealing with towering Potters striker Peter Crouch was key to setting the platform for victory.

“We tried to build a cage around him to be in conditions to win the second ball and we did that most of the time,” Mourinho said.

“We had the game basically under control against a very good team.

“It was a fantastic performance. The victory means bit more than three points. You could feel the right spirit and what the players are ready to do to try to win the championship in one of those difficult places to win.

“The players were amazing. Everyone did his job perfectly as a team. We played very, very well.”

Mourinho refused to condemn the dangerous scything tackle on Eden Hazard that saw Phil Bardsley booked in the first period.

“Maybe it was a red card. I don’t know but I had that feeling at the time'” Mourinho said.

“If it was it was out of context of the game, because the game was fair.They were aggressive and we were aggressive. But I think the game was fair.”

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