Jose's verdict on Chelsea

Jose Mourinho described our Carabao Cup success over Chelsea as a ‘victory of a team, of a group’.

The team recovered from Timo Werner’s early strike to dominate the second half and deservedly equalise through Erik Lamela with seven minutes remaining of Tuesday night's fourth round tie.

It stayed 1-1 at the final whistle, so the match went straight to penalties - the second time in three seasons we've faced off against Chelsea from the spot in the competition, having lost a semi-final at Stamford Bridge in January, 2019.

This time we made no mistake and after successful spot-kicks from Eric Dier, Lamela, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Lucas and Harry Kane, Mason Mount missed the 10th of the shoot-out and we progressed to the quarter-finals, those ties to be played on the week commencing 21 December.

"It’s a victory of a team, of a group,” declared Jose. “The ones who didn’t play Sunday, they gave everything. The ones who played Sunday, they were ready to help. The ones in the stands, they were here suffering.

“It’s a great feeling, because this week is not human. Eric Dier, maybe one day he can explain his feelings about playing two 90 minutes in the space of three days, and special 90 minutes, because if you go to another league, the intensity is lower, but you know, Premier League football is incredible."

New signing Sergio Reguilon made his debut, and quite an impact with his bursting runs down the left and claimed the assist for Lamela’s equaliser. Japhet Tanganga and Gedson made their first appearances of the season, Tanganga back after injury.

“I’m very proud,” said Jose. “Let’s go for a few dedications. Tottenham fans, I think they are incredibly proud of the way the boys performed, giving everything as a team with players who, like Japhet Tanganga, his first minutes of the whole season.

“Players who played 90 minutes against Newcastle were here and ready to help. I think the supporters are very proud of them, so a dedication goes to them. It goes to Leyton Orient players, staff and fans, I think we represented them very well in this tie, and I feel very sorry for them.”

As for the penalties, Jose added: “My record is bad on penalties, I lose the majority of the time, but all these boys were very confident.

“My words to them were, after this performance, we have to win. The performance was so good, so dominant, I have to believe the big man upstairs was with us. And he was, and it was a fantastic victory for the boys, and it’s a competition we now have in the pocket until 21 December, so at least now we can focus on Europa League and Premier League.”