Mourinho checks his watch as five minutes of stoppage time is shown to be played during the EPL football match between Chelsea and Crystal Palace
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho shrugged off his side’s 3-1 loss to Everton on Saturday, saying there was no one better than him to coach the Premier League champions despite their bad start to the season.
Outsmarted by hat-trick scorer Steven Naismith, Chelsea slumped to a second consecutive defeat in a season that has brought just four points from its opening five games.
Against every pre-season prediction, Mourinho’s side already risks being cut adrift by Manchester City in a title race which has only just begun.
However, the Portuguese coach remained defiant that what he called the worst run of his career would end, and that his player’s luck would turn.
And he was no less certain about his own position.
“I don’t think there is a better manager than me to come to Chelsea and to do my job. That’s so simple as that. I’m the man for the job,” he told BT Sport. “I’m the man that gives so many good things for Chelsea, so now I’m the man with the bad results.
“I’m responsible for that … but I feel that I’m the man.”
Mourinho famously dubbed himself a “Special One” at the start of what became a hugely successful first spell with Chelsea from 2004-2007.
That self-confidence has clearly not faded. And he dismissed any idea that he was struggling to meet expectations in what has always been an ambitious, big-spending club under Russian owner Roman Abramovich.
“I’m not feeling under pressure,” he said. “I’m feeling that the results are the worst results ever in my career, I’m not adapted to what I feel is my quality, is my status, I’m not happy. But I’m coping well with the situation.”
If anything, Mourinho was more concerned about his team coping with the run of poor results when, according to him, they are all doing their job properly.
“The way they are playing is not so bad as the results. But in every game everything goes against (us). Even today (…) We are dominant — we dominate, we dominate, we dominate — they go on a counterattack and score the third goal.
“The priority is to keep doing what we are doing,” he insisted. “I cannot put more pressure on the players — the players are feeling enough sadness and enough frustration, and lack of confidence… the last thing they need now is for me being critical of them. Let’s wait for better days, let’s wait for better results and I trust they will do that.”
Despite the demanding situation, with the Champions League and a London derby against Arsenal looming, Mourinho still found a moment for irony.
“I think that Championship people can be calm,” he said, “that Chelsea next year is not playing in the Championship.” AP
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