Jose's verdict on Chelsea

Jose Mourinho gave an honest assessment of our 2-0 loss at home to Chelsea on Sunday.

Willian’s early goal put the visitors in the driving seat, and they doubled their lead at the end of the first half via a penalty from the same player. We started the second half well but were then hit by a red card to Heung-Min Son. Trailing 2-0 with 10 men proved too high a mountain to climb.

Jose said: “They were better than us in the first half. It’s not difficult for me to admit it. They played a system where they are very comfortable, a system they played for two years with Antonio Conte, a system where lots of their players are very comfortable, and they created problems for us in the first half - not problems of scoring situations but problems with the control they had.

“It’s easy for me to admit they were superior but then you look at the goals and they are not a consequence of any superiority. The (first) goal is a short corner with a big mistake because we know how to defend short corners, we train how to defend short corners and the players involved in the short corner solution were not focussed. So, we concede through a short corner and a penalty. So, the goals didn’t come from that superiority. The goals come from mistakes.

“In the second half we changed. We felt we needed to change, and we had much more control and we were in our best period of the game, and one goal would obviously change the game emotionally, because the game on the pitch had already changed. The first half was played in our half, and this first 15, 20 minutes of the second was much more in their half, the game changed.

“We were looking for a goal but instead of a goal, we received a red card and then the game is easy for them to control, players technically good, one player more. Then it was more difficult.”