Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho said he did not believe the absence of John Terry was a factor in their shock defeat at home to Crystal Palace.
The Blues were beaten 2-1 Stamford Bridge in their 100th home league game under Mourinho, having lost only one of the previous 99.
Mourinho refused to comment on the form of Branislav Ivanovic, whose poor start to the season continued as Bakary Sako caused the hosts major problems.
But he insisted he was happy with the performances of centre-backs Kurt Zouma and Gary Cahill.
Asked about Ivanovic, Mourinho said: “I am not going to analyse individual form and performances. I can’t do that.”
But he denied suggestions Terry’s suspension might have had a serious impact upon his team, whose defending was again a cause for concern.
“I don’t think so. I think Cahill and Zouma have a lot of ability and played well and have had no problems,” Mourinho said.
“It could be a good excuse for me but I wouldn’t be being honest with Cahill and Zouma, because I thought they did well.”
Mourinho felt Chelsea should have had a penalty for a first-half challenge by Connor Wickham on Zouma.
But he also praised Palace, who took the lead through Sako’s goal and hit back straight after Radamel Falcao’s equaliser, with Joel Ward heading in the winner.
“My first thought is to Palace. They came with everything,” he said.
“The team was ready, the fans were ready and they came with a fantastic spirit. They were lucky, but they deserved their luck.
“Secondly, my team I think deserved more. I don’t want to say we deserved to win, because that’s not true. But I want to say we deserved more than the result we got.”
That result means Chelsea are still without a home win this season and have taken only four points from their opening four matches.
Mourinho insisted they were capable of making up ground on their title rivals but admitted it has been a “very bad start” to the campaign for the champions.
This post was last modified on 30/08/2015
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chelsea have players. Alway dat does nt blv in youth, dats our proplem. Owner be wise with mourinho b4 he mess evryting down.
We thanks god even if our performing is not good all of us known it is the game at some time it might refuse we still have the hope it is not late but you jose morinho advance your player to be in movement mostly of theme they have to look pedro's way and you have to talk to your defender god bless our team chelsea
to me mourinho worst d matter tell him to call d female doctor back to d first team and u wll see d team spirit,a doctor came in to treat ur best player on d pitch next u went to suspend her,how did u want others feels dats shows u dont care about there health as far u get 3point,,,,big problem in d team and boss caused dat.....iva need rest,,,aziec is okay dere and baba to d left,,,zouma and terry at center back,,,we pogba in d team,cheeks rubben can pare with matics,/remirez,,,hazard,fabrigas/osca and kenedy/willams/moses,,,,pedro/remy/costa/facao should top strike.....kallas better dan stone,,,,....we need standing 4,romeu can do dat but boss waste our youth too much and went ahead to pay huge amounth for d youth dat did nt have quality of yours youth team.....ake,,kallas,chalobal,piazon,solanke,ola ina,,,,with dis d team is okay,,,mikel should be release cause boss did not believe in him
Kenedy,cheeks should come in, iva should wait 4 a while hazard and fabrigas should play harder
I guess all I had to say has being said by my fellow Chelsea fans and if that's the case, then even those who 'know better' at the club knows what to do but they ain't got the balls to make the decisions quick. I still wonder how the form of the key players for last season just dropped drastically, the signs were there towards the tail end, but I just thought it was fatigue given the fact the coach didn't rotate the team well enough leading me to believe the extended holiday would heal it all. The BOLD decisions should be taken, players should be dropped if they're not performing and the 'younger and more hungry' ones should feature in their place.
IVANOVIC, FABREGAS, HAZARD and MATIC need to be reminded of 'Passion' and 'Competition'... KTBFFH
I have no one to blame but Jose, because he refuse to do the right thing at the right time.
From the beginning of the season I have had issue with the form of iva and Fab. But the coach still prefer to gamble with this guy.
He is not giving those young guys chance at all to grow with all the investment the club made to equip the youth team and till date none of them have made it to the first team.
Now you want to pay almost $80M on pogbe? Make no sense in any way at all.
We just need a manager that can integrate the youth to the senior team.
With all the love I have for mourinho, but I don't think he's nt good enof for the project.
loftus cheek....should play alongside with matic, while azpilicueta plays rigth back, and baba plays LB kenedy should be given full chance to compete with willian. Blue is the colour
mou should keep ivanovic on d bench,while rahman and azpilicueta should be used on the flanks,also kenedy should compete with oscar @ 10 because currently now willian can't play there. willian is just as cuadrado..willian neva scores jst runs around doesn't create chances.. oscar should be favourite to play there with kenedy if this is done I see chelsea going back to winning ways
I think Mou should bench matic, fabrigas, costa and iva and play. coutois, azpi, baba, zuma, cahil, Ramires/mikel, loftus check, hazard,kenedy/oscar, pedro/willian remy/falcao in the next four matches all things being equal and see everybody sit up. but honestly Mou seem a confused man to me. how can u sell betrand 10m euro and price Danny rose 15m euros, he should learn to trust in his new talents
Curtois, azplicuetta,zouma .cahil.baba.loftus cheek.matic. kenedy .pedro.hazard .costa sub
be ..willian..falcao..osca..fabrigas..moses