REACTION: SILVERWARE AGAIN - JT OK
As he reflected on his fifth trophy in under three seasons at Chelsea, José Mourinho made three wishes.
But before that, neither he nor any Chelsea fan could even begin to enjoy the Carling Cup Final win over Arsenal without news on John Terry.
The skipper, so surprisingly fit for the game, had taken bravery to new lengths when he put his head into the danger zone in an attempt to score, suffering a sickening blow from an Arsenal boot.
The news was good.
'We know now that he lost consciousness,' said Mourinho after the match. The Chelsea manager totally absolved Abou Diaby of any blame, confirming the Arsenal man had been within his rights to attempt to clear his lines.
'John lost his consciousness so that was a major problem and when he lost that, he was completely out of the game, even if he recovers.
'When he was on the stretcher next to me, I spoke some words. The way he reacted with his hands, I understood that he was completely conscious again and remembers everything.'
Indeed our captain was back in the stadium before the team left for home, enjoying the celebrations as much as anyone.
Mourinho's wishes were simple. The first was that the flash point near the end that saw two Arsenal players dismissed and one Chelsea, plus a booking a side, would not dominate the coverage of the game.
'I still haven't seen it on TV,' he admitted. 'It was a pity what happened at the last part of the game. I don't know who was responsible but it was a pity.
'The players had behaved well. Maybe it was a consequence of frustration and some boys lost a little bit their emotion.
'I hope we can all forget these incidents and we can all focus on the good things of the game.
'My player with a red card was Mikel. If he did something wrong, it is not for me to kill him, it is for me to educate him.'
The second wish was that Didier Drogba's stunning sharpness in front of goal didn't obscure the contribution of the team as a whole.
'He scored two very important goals and I think the second one is absolutely beautiful - but I don't like the goalscorer to be looked in a very special way.
'I think Sheva worked very hard although he didn't score. Robben gave a big contribution. The midfield players worked very hard against a team that passed very well and I think everybody at the back did his best.'
Wish number three was that people didn't talk just of Chelsea beating a young Arsenal team, but that they had also beaten an accomplished Arsenal team.
'I hope people don't forget what that young Arsenal team did in Liverpool - they did what nobody has done and win. They beat Everton and they beat Spurs. We are speaking about a young team but a very good young team.
'They had a much better first half than we had. In the second half was the opposite. We controlled the game, hit the woodwork twice and we scored the winning goal.
'Going back to London will take our supporters a lot of hours but I think they go with a lot of happiness. I will always have good memories of this stadium.'
