Mourinho labels dreadful defeat ‘completely fake’

JOSE MOURINHO was handed a bitter pill to swallow as a brilliant Manchester City performance left his Chelsea side humbled yesterday. Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and Fernandinho scored to leave the champions with one point from their first two games and Mourinho miserable after what has been a controversial week. The Chelsea boss banned the club’s doctor Eva Carneiro from the bench after a fall-out over how she treated Eden Hazard nine days ago but all the focus now will be on reviving the team. He also made the shock decision to substitute John Terry at half-time as his captain struggled against the electric Aguero. Mourinho feared his game plan could be in tatters after just 10 seconds of a comprehensive defeat at the Etihad. When Aguero raced clear of the Chelsea back-line moments after kick-off to force the first of several smart saves from Asmir Begovic, the Portuguese realised the defensive strategy he had put in place last week was already crumbling. ‘When the game started and 10 seconds later you have Aguero behind the defensive line and facing Begovic, immediately you get the notion the start wasn’t good,’ he said. ‘After that, he made two or three saves because of that fragility. ‘I was the first one to be disappointed. All week you are speaking about movements, directions of the game, mechanisms, Aguero’s runs and Aguero’s positions, the wingers coming inside — and after 10 seconds Aguero is in the face of Begovic. We were defensively poor in the first half.’ In 177 previous league games under Mourinho at Chelsea, Terry had not once been substituted. But Mourinho soon concluded he needed the pace of Kurt Zouma to play a higher defensive line in the second half, and replaced his captain at half-time. ‘The point was not to take John out, it was to bring Zouma in — I wanted my fastest player on the pitch, not on the bench,’ added Mourinho. ‘It was clear for me Zouma has to play. I had to bring one out and I brought out my captain. He was on the bench and still my captain because the armband is just the armband. ‘I can tell you he was not dancing in the dressing room and I can tell you also he was not having a bad reaction. He did what everybody does.’ While Sky Sports pundit Niall Quinn predicted ‘it’s the beginning of the end for Terry’, Graeme Souness believes Mourinho was sending out a message to owner Roman Abramovich that he needs more defenders. Although Chelsea have completed the £21.7million signing of Augsburg leftback Baba Rahman, they have failed with two bids for Everton’s John Stones. Souness said: ‘It’s the manager trying to make a statement to the owner in as much that he needs more players.’ Mourinho claimed Fernandinho should have been sent off for an alleged elbow on Diego Costa, and that Yaya Toure should have received a second yellow card. He also disagreed with Manuel Pellegrini that the 3-0 scoreline was not a fair reflection, calling it ‘completely fake’. ‘In the first half, the best team was winning, in the second half the best team was Chelsea,’ said Mourinho. ‘If the 1-0 result after our second half had been unfair in my opinion, imagine 2-0 or 3-0? ‘Everybody knew 1-0 was a result they wanted to keep and were having trouble keeping. Then second goal, mistake. Third goal, mistake.’ However, Pellegrini thought Chelsea were lucky to escape with just a three-goal defeat. He said: ‘In the first half, we deserved at least three or four goals. ‘Our team played better than 3-0, it was the minimum we deserved.’