Manchester United defender Jonny Evans says that his side “laugh off” Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho’s mind-games, claiming that the players pay little attention.The Premier League champions, who got their title defence off to a flying start with a 4-1 win away at Swansea City, welcome the Blues to Old Trafford on Monday night and the Portuguese has stoked the fire ahead of the match by claiming that United’s title success last season lacked style.
But Evans is not concerned about the former Real Madrid coach’s comments, insisting that they will have little effect on him and the United squad.
‘It’s just mind-games, really. Maybe it is his way of trying to unsettle us,” the defender told The Independent. “As players you don’t look too deeply into those kinds of comments, you just laugh them off. It’s gone within two seconds.”
Evans admits that new manager David Moyes is under pressure after succeeding Sir Alex Ferguson but the Northern Ireland international questions whether Mourinho can have the same impact that he did during his first spell at Chelsea.
“There will be a bit of pressure and, if [Moyes] doesn’t get off to a good start, you guys in the press might be on his back, but we lost our first game of last season and went on to win the league, so you can’t look too deeply into it,” the centre-back reasoned.
“Everyone is saying that now Chelsea have Mourinho back it will make a big difference to them but we will have to wait and see whether that will be the case.
“I am sure he will have an impact but we might have to wait a month or two before you realise who is going to be challenging for the title. Mourinho had that spell at Chelsea when he gave his players a lot of confidence but it remains to be seen whether he can have that impact again.” – Yahoo Sports
