Video: Jose Mourinho's reaction after Chelsea's loss to Newcastle United
Chasing his first victory at St. James' Park after his record of 2 draws and 2 defeats, Mourinho failed to overcome his curse at the longest away league trip for his London side.
"I don't believe there'll be a Chelsea crisis in the season. I believe Chelsea will lose points and matches, but not in a crisis of results. I truly believe in our ability,” Mourinho said a fortnight ago.
Mourinho had constantly been hinting that his Chelsea side would one day be defeated. The day came sooner than many expected. A double from substitute Papiss Cisse had put the hosts ahead and, despite the Magpies being reduced to 10 men and Didier Drogba scoring with time to spare, the Blues were unable to find a late equaliser to continue their unbeaten start to the campaign.
‘‘We were unlucky,’ said Mourinho. ‘The best team lost, the team that tried to win lost, but that’s football.’’
‘‘What’s important is that it’s the kind of defeat which is easy to accept. I don’t like to lose when the referee isn’t good and I blame him, which isn’t the case. He was very good and had no influence on the result. I don’t like to lose and blame my players because they were complacent, didn’t play, didn’t produce or the attitude wasn’t good, that’s not the case, so I’m happy about that.’’
‘‘We were unlucky, we didn’t score goals when we could have and we conceded the only times they crossed the midfield line, but that’s football and I accept it. We were unlucky, that’s crystal clear, one day we will be lucky.’’
Jose Mourinho was highly crticical of Newcastle's time-wasting strategy as Chelsea's unbeaten start to the season came to an end at St James's Park on Saturday afternoon.
"We wanted to play more football, but that was not possible because a few things that I thought didn't belong any more to top level football but still belongs - the ball disappears, the ball doesn't come, another ball comes, the ball boys they run away," Mourinho said.
"These are the kinds of situation which our unfortunately still part of the game. But no complaints."
"That is a kind of strategy that is unfortunately still part of the game, but OK, forgetting that, we were very unlucky, we didn't deserve this result but it is the result we have, we have to accept, we have to move on."
He further added: "You didn't see that? The ball disappeared. They keep the ball, they hide the ball, we want to play, no ball. When one ball comes the second ball appears again. This kind of strategy."
Jose Mourinho also suggested that more time should have been added on despite the 6 added minutes.
"My team lost the way I like to lose which is to give everything and being unlucky. Only one team played to win. After the second goal the team lost their emotional balance. A point was the minimum we deserved.
"There could have been 20 minutes stoppage time but the situation would have been the same because things were happening outside the four lines that the referee couldn't control. The referee can't punish the ball boy who disappeared with the ball, the referee couldn't punish the people in the crowd who kept the ball. I'm not obsessed with records and statistics, that's not for me, I want to win the league."
Having said that, the 2-1 loss at St. James' Park could prove out to be a blessing in disguise for the Stamford Bridge outfit as they could now focus on the Premier League and could prove a boost to Chelsea's already very strong chance of winning the Premier League title as now their sole target would just be to win the Premier League and not the “Invincible” tag.
And though he would never admit it publicly, Mourinho might be relieved that he can now focus on simply winning rather than smashing records.