Posted on: 03:52 Sat, 22 Oct 2016



But he has vowed to keep his emotions in check out of respect to his former club and will not inflame the atmosphere by celebrating if Manchester United score.

Mourinho makes his first visit to west London since he was sacked last December following Chelsea’s disastrous start to their Premier League title defence.

The Portuguese is unsure what reaction he will receive from a crowd that once idolised him but insists he will be focussed solely on the game.
“To say I care [about the reaction] is not true,” he said.

“To be honest, when I go to a football match I am not focused on that. I am more focused on the game. I try to prepare myself for the match, so I cannot say that I care.

“What can I expect? I don’t know. They can think about me and remember our great relationship and have a good reaction. They can look at me and say, ‘for 90 minutes he is Manchester United manager and he is playing against us, so he is not someone we like at this moment’.

“I know I did my job there. I had an amazing empathy with the supporters, who didn’t change their relationship with me because of last season and a couple of months of bad results. They gave me their love and support. I want to keep all the good memories.

“If now I go there as United manager and they decide to have a different approach I will always respect them.”

Mourinho hopes defender Chris Smalling recovers in time from a muscular problem picked up during Thursday’s 4-1 win over Fenerbahce as United bid to end a run of 10 games without a win against Chelsea stretching back to October 2012.