West Bromwich(WBA) vs Chelsea FC preview - Pulis rejects Chelsea crisis claims - 7M sport

West Bromwich(WBA) vs Chelsea FC preview - Pulis rejects Chelsea crisis claims



Posted Saturday, August 22, 2015 by PA

West Brom manager Tony Pulis believes any talk of a Chelsea crisis is a joke and fears a Jose Mourinho backlash.

Pulis is wary of facing the reigning Barclays Premier League champions despite their slow start to the season.

Chelsea travel to The Hawthorns on Sunday looking for their first win of the campaign after being humbled 3-0 at title rivals Manchester City last week.

The Baggies beat Chelsea 3-0 at home at the end of last season but, even after their stuttering opening, Pulis dismissed suggestions the champions are in trouble.

"There's a crisis at every Premier League team," he said. "It is a joke what you just said. A crisis after two games? This isn't a comedy show.

"They could have Pedro, (Diego) Costa and (Eden) Hazard playing, that's not bad is it?

"They're the champions and they deserved to win it. They were so far ahead of everyone.

"We know it's going to be tough. To have Man City and Chelsea as our first two home games is very difficult, plus we have the window to deal with."

Pulis, whose move for Tottenham's Federico Fazio is on hold after talks broke down over personal terms on Friday, could hand record signing Salomon Rondon his home debut.

Pedro could also make his Chelsea bow after joining from Barcelona this week while Mourinho must make a call over whether to start John Terry.

The skipper was substituted at half-time in last week's defeat at Manchester City but Pulis insisted Mourinho must be respected and knows Chelsea are hurting.

"There's no bigger manager in the world than Jose. I find him a different person away from the cameras, I like him. I admire what he's achieved, it's remarkable," he said.

"He deserves respect, there are always little chinks but whenever I've dealt with him he's been first-class.

"There's never a good time to play Chelsea. When we beat them last season they had a player sent off, people forget that.

"That was a good time to play them, before the game I wasn't so sure. We'll be facing a wounded animal."

Mourinho is keeping his cool despite Chelsea's worst start to a Premier League season in 17 years.

"Do we have to improve? Obviously. Always," Mourinho said.

"We are calm, not happy, but calm. We need that. We need to be unhappy because that feeling makes you work better, better than ever when the results are not good and to be calm is very, very important too."

Chelsea signed left-back Baba Rahman and forward Pedro this week, the latter after the Blues moved swiftly to swoop ahead of Manchester United.

Mourinho has previously spoken of working with a squad of 22 senior players - two in every position - and Pedro's arrival inflated the first-team group to 23 men.

But the Portuguese insisted that does not necessarily mean any players will be leaving prior to the September 1 closure of the transfer window.

"It's not a compulsory thing. I can perfectly have one more player than is normal for us," Mourinho said.

"One more option for me is not a problem. You have injuries, you have suspensions, different competitions to play.

"Hopefully we can progress in the domestic cups too and there are lots of matches to play.

"If you have one more winger in the group, it can be a problem for the wingers not getting the playing time they want, but for me it's not a problem."



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