Former England international Danny Mills has praised Jose Mourinho and Maurizio Sarri for the way they handled the Marco Ianni situation on Saturday.
During Saturday’s Chelsea-Manchester United match, it seemed that Maurizio Sarri’s side would face their first defeat of the season. However, a late equaliser from Ross Barkley rescued Chelsea and the match ended 2-2.
After Barkley found the net, the Chelsea dugout erupted and everyone was delighted. However, Chelsea’s assistant manager Marco Ianni celebrated in front of Jose Mourinho which angered the Portuguese. Mourinho went to confront Ianni but Chelsea personnel intervened and the matter did not exceed much further.
None of the managers made an issue out of the situation during the post-match press conference.
Danny Mills said that Ianni crossed a line by celebrating in the manner he did. However, he also said that both managers handled the situation pretty well.
Mills said, “I get it. It is the last minute, you get an equaliser, it feels like a winner. Going down the touchline is not so much of a problem.
But I think, when he comes back, and he looks at the United bench, and then he says something and celebrates again – he is trying to agitate them. That initial emotion has gone and that is definitely trying to get a response and I think Mourinho has the right to react.
I thought it was dealt with very well afterwards, by both sets of managers. You can tell that between those two there is a huge amount of respect. Mourinho was not happy with that second reaction, but he dealt with it and moved on. Sarri apologised, killed the situation and said he would handle it internally.”
Chelsea are currently in third position with 21 points. Despite maintaining their unbeaten run, the Blues are two points behind Manchester City and Liverpool because both teams won their respective matches. Manchester United on the other hand, are at 10th place.
Chelsea’s next match is a Europa League clash against BATE Borisov while Manchester United play a Champions League fixture against Juventus.
