Chelsea adopted a siege mentality on Friday.
There was no news conference and, coincidentally, their top scorer Diego Costa was banned for three games for stamping on Liverpool’s Emre Can.
It is proof the English Football Association’s disciplinary department have been busy.
This week Jose Mourinho was fined £25,000 (Dh138,000) for having said there is a “campaign” against the league leaders.
It left Manchester City alone in speaking and Manuel Pellegrini, ever Mourinho’s opposite, to supply a voice of reason.
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If the Portuguese is a seasoned conspiracy theorist, the Chilean voiced the majority viewpoint when he insisted there were no anti-Chelsea machinations.
“I hope in the Premier League, the most important league in the world, they don’t have a campaign against anyone,” Pellegrini said. “I hope all is fair and the referee makes mistakes for all the teams exactly the same.”
Pellegrini’s common-sense views do not capture the imagination the way Mourinho’s controversial opinions do, especially given the Chelsea coach’s charismatic presence.
The Portuguese tends to use meetings with City to try to rile Pellegrini but, in his self-imposed blackout, he abdicated the stage, allowing his enemy a monologue. Pellegrini, typically, did not use the chance to attempt to get under Mourinho’s skin.
His Chelsea counterpart, in one of his jibes, has referred to the 61-year-old City coach as “Mr Pellegrino” — to which Pellegrini did not respond. His only retort was the implication that his approach is more ethical, but he stopped short of saying so.
“This profession is so difficult for a manager,” Pellegrini said. “We have different styles. The way I do it is the best way for me. But it’s not the only way to do it.”
That applies to a brand of play. Pellegrini was critical of Chelsea’s game plan when they drew at the Etihad Stadium in September.
“It was a mistake to compare [them] with Stoke,” he said.
If mentions of Stoke tend to bring thoughts of long-ball football, it was in fact not that damning, as Stoke had deployed a counter-attacking game plan when they won in Manchester, which is often Mourinho’s approach against City.
The question today is if he will look to defend his five-point lead at the division’s summit or extend it to eight?
“Maybe they can think a draw is a good point for them,” Pellegrini said. “But I am sure they want to win. I always play to win.”
Pellegrini’s approach rarely extends to discussing players at other clubs. He made an exception for Costa, suggesting the Premier League’s top scorer can abandon his nasty streak and continue to flourish.
“I hope that this punishment will be a good thing for him to change in the future because he doesn’t need to do it in that way because he is a top player,” Pellegrini said.
The City manager will be without one of his own — Yaya Toure is at the African Cup of Nations — but neither absence can be used as an excuse, he said.
Without Toure, the goalscoring midfielder in City’s ranks is Frank Lampard, who scored 211 in a 13-year spell at Stamford Bridge and opened his City account against his former club.
Lampard’s spell at City has annoyed some at Chelsea but Pellegrini said he believes they will celebrate his greatness.
“I am sure that Frank Lampard will receive the best reception from their fans,” he said. “He is maybe the most important player in their history.”
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