Jose Mourinho: Confidence is low and title may be beyond Chelsea

Chelsea have endured their worst start to a season since 1986

(EPA)

Jose Mourinho admitted that Chelsea were suffering a crisis of confidence after the champions slumped to their third defeat in their opening five league matches with a 3-1 loss at Everton.

The Chelsea manager said a combination of low confidence and bad luck were the causes of his team’s worst start to a top-flight season since 1986 – and he also acknowledged that they were desperate for a win to restore their self-belief.

“We don’t deserve this result,” he said after seeing his side undone by a Steven Naismith hat-trick in a match where Chelsea dominated possession but were caught lacking in both boxes. “It is too heavy for the way the players started the game, finished the game and played during the game. Confidence is low [and it’s] an unhappy team because of that result.

“We need to win a couple of consecutive matches. We need the players to smile again. We need the strikers to score goals, we need the central defenders not to make mistakes and be punished for that. We need confidence.”

With four points from a possible 15, Chelsea have made the worst start of any defending Premier League champion since Blackburn Rovers in 1995, but Mourinho denied that he was under pressure. “No, no,” he said. “I think the refugees are under big pressure.”

Chelsea face Arsenal in their next league fixture at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, following Wednesday’s Champions League fixture against Maccabi Tel-Aviv. They are 11 points behind leaders Manchester City. Mourinho said there was a big question mark against the possibility of defending the title. “Chelsea can win the next match against Arsenal for sure. To win the title, I don’t know. We depend on us to improve a lot the results, but we also depend on other clubs that are on top of us to lose matches, and this is something out of [our] control.”