Capital One Cup: Arsene will play his stars, says Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho believes Arsene Wenger is so desperate to end Arsenal’s eight-year trophy drought he will play a strong team against Chelsea in the Capital One Cup tonight.

Wenger normally uses the competition to give some of his younger players a chance but Mourinho senses the Arsenal manager will change tack for the fourth-round tie.

Mourinho feels Chelsea are at a disadvantage because they played Manchester City on Sunday afternoon while Arsenal faced Crystal Palace on Saturday lunchtime and the Chelsea manager suspects Wenger will try to take advantage at Emirates Stadium.

“I think [Wenger will play a stronger team] because it’s Chelsea and they want to try to win a title,” said Mourinho. “The Capital One Cup is the first one they can win in the season and people have given us one day to rest and they’ve had two.

“What I’m thinking is a question mark. Because Arsenal doesn’t win a title for a long time, do they do this to kill us before the game or is it just occasional? One team play 12.30pm on Saturday another play 4pm on Sunday.

“Another team play against Crystal Palace, the other against Manchester City and now we have to play on Tuesday. For me it’s a question mark. I won’t play youngsters but I won’t play the players that played against City.

“But we have a Chelsea shirt, a few thousand supporters [going to the game] and we will give our best.”

Mourinho is set to change all of his starting XI tonight with Juan Mata and David Luiz getting an opportunity to regain his favour after being dropped for the last two games.

Cesar Azpilicueta is also expected to earn just his third start of the campaign having been frozen out this term, which has led to speculation he could be sold in January.

But Mourinho said: “I go out of my line to praise Cesar. I love these players who play where the team need them, when the coach wants, whether it is for 90 minutes or coming from the bench for one minute. For them it is the team first, second and third and finally they think about themselves.”

Since Arsenal’s 2005 FA Cup triumph, Wenger has lost two League Cup Finals, one of which was the last meeting between the teams in the tournament. That day, two goals from Didier Drogba saw Mourinho’s men win 2-1 in the 2007 final at the Millennium Stadium.