Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho praised Juan Mata following the 3-1 victory against Southampton.
Mata’s struggle to secure a first-team place since Mourinho’s return has led to speculation about the popular Spaniard’s future.
But he impressed after being recalled to the side, showing glimpses of his class and delivering a fine cross to John Terry for Chelsea’s all-important second goal.
Mourinho was also pleased with Mata’s willingness to help Branislav Ivanovic deal with the forward runs of Southampton’s highly-rated full-back Luke Shaw.
He said: “It was good. I think in the second half Mata gave us what we needed.
“We were playing 4-4-2 and needed him to be a bit of a winger, come inside and combine with the attacking players.
“We also needed to control Luke Shaw because the kid goes forward and he [Mata was a big support for Ivanovic, so he was good.”
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This post was last modified on 02/12/2013
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mourinho shud gv mata his chances of playing as a first team man. Mata n oscar ar gud. Wen d trinity(mata, oscar n hazard) d chelsea's playmakers ar in a march d playmaking rate increase n victory is certain. EPL are not dreamin wen dey gv mata d EPL bEST PLAYER 4 two consecutive seasons. So chelsea fc n mourinho shud gv mata full chanceto play bcos fans ar not happy wit mata been bench always.
All players cannot play at the same time, with Mata in the pitch CHELSEA can still drop points, live the so called special one to continue with his preferred team selection. He cannot reason more than his brain.
Every body can testified how good mata is on the pitch yesterday. Mourinho your speciality is not ability to bench good players but rather to be able to bring best out of them. No one will praise you even if you achieved the best result and mata and luiz are on the bench but rather failure on your side to use players with good talent.
pls jose ur doing well,pls stop using lampard as starter,use mata ,david luise,our team be formidable, put lamp 87th of matches,up bluess.
congratulation
it is my request mourihno should get used to use Joan Mata coz we love him and we fill bad if is left behind
mourinho has too much pride. What ever happen between him and mata he should swallow it and use juan mata as chelsea number ten becos he is full of skills and can locate our front men. We need mata and david luiz. Up blues
MATA is too good on the field... is it the passes,crosses,assists & goals etc... Mourinho please keep on playing MATA regularly & get the best out of him. & i also bet, you will ENJOY him very well, for sure... Even if he made a mistake, all he needed is correction, not punishment OK... We the Bluez fans calls you Mourinho the SPECIAL ONE & Please Mourinho prove to us that you are still the SPECIAL ONE Pleazzz... MATA IS THE VERY BEST IN THAT POSITION... He's the best No.(10) in that premier league. MATA is very IMPORTANT to us... MATA MATA'S TO US & We really miss him a lot... THANKS!!! THE SKY IS BLUE & WE ARE THE BLUEZZZ. SO UP CHELSEA???
every match Mata has played l,ll rate him ahead of hazard, Oscar and shurlle and mata should be played with Oscar and hazard ahead of shurlle
if you say David Luis errors has cost us alot then what about lampard and even ivanovic who has being making alot of mistakes this days he doesn't even know how to make a cross. terry also makes mistakes too. against Newcastle it was cole and terry who made the mistakes and we lose but you people will never say the truth and always blaming luiz. even lampard who is always thinking about himself in the team you still support him and wants him to play every game. we should think about now and the future but not the past. if some players were the best in the past and now they're below par they should be benched