Boss Mourinho admits selection mistake

Jose Mourinho has admitted he may have been wrong to make only two changes for Chelsea’s hard-fought win against Aston Villa.

Mourinho replaced Fernando Torres with Demba Ba up front, while Juan Mata returned to the starting line-up.

The Blues boss opted against further changes following Sunday’s victory over Hull and felt that may have been a factor in his team’s ragged second-half display against a Villa side who caused plenty of problems.

“Maybe my decision of not making many changes – only two – was not the best,” said Mourinho.

Mata returned to the Chelsea side.
Mata returned to the Chelsea side.

“Maybe it would have been better to put more fresh players in from the beginning.

“I felt my players from the midfield to the attacking areas were not very sharp and that was understandable.”

Romelu Lukaku was one of the players introduced in the second half as the manager looked to bring Chelsea’s forward line to life.

Torres, meanwhile, was left out of the matchday squad altogether.

Mourinho explained: “Sometimes you can have two strikers on the bench but for this game I needed a different balance on the bench.

“I thought maybe I would have to play Cesar Azpilicueta, as he is very fast, if Villa played the counter attack, and that we might need Mikel’s experience in midfield.

“I also knew I needed options in terms of wingers because Juan Mata could not play 90 minutes yet.

“So Torres was the one who stayed off, but then Lukaku can say that he’s the only striker who hasn’t started [this season].”

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