Jose Mourinho says his Chelsea side are “in trouble” after suffering a 3-2 defeat against Stoke City on Saturday, while he also called on his side to find their killer instinct in front of goal.
Andre
Schurrle netted twice for the profligate visitors, but the Potters
claimed all three points thanks to Oussama Assaidi's stunning
90th-minute strike.
The defeat means Chelsea remain points adrift
of Premier League leaders Arsenal, who face Everton on Sunday, and
Mourinho blasted his side's failure to convert their pressure into a
win.
“I don’t feel comfortable enough to tell you what I think about the game,” the Portuguese fumed. “We’re in trouble.
“After
30 minutes we should have been winning 3-0 or 4-0 but we weren’t. When
you play so well and it is so easy you find spaces, and when the three
players behind the strikers were playing so well, you have to kill the
game, and we didn't.
“We played amazingly well at the beginning of the game, [Juan] Mata, [Eden] Hazard and Schurrle played very, very, well.
“But we didn't score enough goals and, on top of that you make defensive mistakes and you concede.
“I
think this team is a team that has to score goals; has to capitalize on
the production and the way we are playing, because we are not a
physical team.
“We are not a team with the conditions to defend
against physical teams, so I think we have to score when we have the
game in our hands.”
Despite this latest setback, Mourinho is
impressed with the mentality of his team, although he accepted that
their performance in the closing stages was below par.
“The team wants to attack, the team wants to have the ball and the initiative,” the former Real Madrid boss argued.
“In the last part of the game we didn't play well, because we started playing in a way they (Stoke) can control.”
Mark
Hughes, meanwhile, was thrilled with his side's display and hopes the
Potters can build on the result as they bid to pull away from the
relegation zone.
“I thought it was a fantastic game. I felt from start to finish we put in a real performance,” said the Welsh boss.
“We
had to recover very quickly from going behind and thought we showed
real character and stuck at it after Chelsea give us a bit of a run
around in the first half.
“We’ve set our own standards today and we need to maintain it and if we can we’ll be a very tough side to overcome.”
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