Jose Mourinho Must Be Wary What He Wished for After PSG Draw in Champions League
Jose Mourinho had every reason for feeling jovial after Saturday's 2-0 victory against Hull City.
Chelsea had just won to maintain their lead at the top of the Premier League table, while some of Mourinho's players could count themselves fortunate to complete the full 90 minutes after their very public auditions for Swan Lake.
He's not one for looking ahead to what might be as the Chelsea boss, but given his mood, it was no surprise Mourinho broke rank to discuss his hopes and ambitions for the upcoming Champions League draw.
"I don't have a lot of preference because we only have five [teams] we can face," he said. "But to make it easy for everybody, Paris. It's easy for us to travel, easy for the fans to travel. They don't spend a lot of money to go there.
"[Paris Saint-Germain] are a very good team, and I prefer a good team that really motivates the boys. If I could choose, but I can't, but if I could, I'd say Paris."
Low and behold, Chelsea will travel to face PSG for the first leg of the Champions League last 16 on Feb. 17. The second leg at Stamford Bridge will be played three weeks later on March 11.
Mourinho's developing quite a knack for predicting the future. Last season it was about small horses becoming stallions, and now Chelsea are getting drawn against the teams he wants to face.
Add some trophies this season to his already impressive collection in England, and Mourinho won't be too far off appearing capable of achieving anything he sets his mind to.
On this occasion, he may well have got more than he bargained for, though.
Facing PSG so early in the Champions League is a major risk to his team's desire to lift the trophy again. While Arsenal have been dealt with a comparably comfortable tie against Monaco, Chelsea could have done with avoiding Ligue 1's other representatives in the draw.
This is a game that comes with several subplots.
Not only did Chelsea snatch a late victory against PSG last season to march on into the Champions League semi-finals, but they will also come up against the player they sold in the summer, David Luiz.
It's a double recipe for revenge to inspire a side out to prove a point.
Laurent Blanc's team are equally desperate to progress in the Champions League this term, especially after their commanding lead in the first leg against Chelsea last year was clawed back at Stamford Bridge.
For players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, time is running out on their opportunities to win Europe's finest club honour, and beating Chelsea will give them the belief they could finally break their duck this season.
Then there's Luiz, who will no doubt tap into the age-old cliche of getting one over his former employers—especially Mourinho, who ostracized him.
Indeed, it's a glamorous tie that pits Europe's nouveau riche against each other once again, set against the backdrop of two of the continent's finest skylines.
It's Big Ben against the Eiffel Tower, Anglo-Franco hostilities restored with more than a hint of Russian and Qatari influence.
Games of this magnitude are premature in the Champions League's last 16. The quarter-finals and beyond are a more fitting setting, especially for a Chelsea team whose fixtures aren't looking too favourable in February.
If they still remain in the FA Cup, Mourinho's side will play seven games in just three weeks—it'll be the gruelling Saturday-midweek-Saturday schedule that has suffocated even the greatest teams.
And all coming after a January when they may have possibly played eight games—a two-legged Capital One Cup semi-final permitting.
A quick calculation, and it's a schedule just shy of half a season of Premier League games in two months.
They could do without such a fierce clash.
Like most sports, football is about picking your fights wisely. It's about knowing when to defend and attack, when to strike and when to resist that natural urge to go in for the kill.
Mourinho was looking at the numbers when he hoped for PSG in the Champions League, but they weren't the right kind.
The Chelsea boss was thinking miles traveled, periods of rest for his players. Against the Ligue 1 champions, they'll be forced to run the distance they could have flown if facing more favourable opposition at this stage.
Be careful what you wish for, Jose.
Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes
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