Jose Mourinho was understandably furious with his players following the 2-0 loss to Newcastle United at St James’ Park and gave a damning assessment in the post match interviews.
The Portuguese manager admitted that his side deserved to lose and he ‘didn’t like’ the performance as they did not fight as hard as their opponents for the result.
It was Chelsea’s second defeat of the season and ended a good run of form for the Blues but although it may not be a significant result by the time May comes around, it taught us a few lessons in the short term.
There was a sense of apathy about the side today that was frustrating for the fans and although Mourinho has changed several games with the use of his subs already this season he cannot be expected to do it every week and I think he made the wrong choices today.
Both Oscar and Frank Lampard were very quiet during the first half and the latter’s main contribution to the game was to play on Newcastle’s scorer for the opening goal before Mourinho had enough and hooked him off, nothing wrong with that, but many weren’t happy to see Juan Mata and Fernando Torres were switched for Willian and Samuel Eto’o around the hour mark as it didn’t really solve any of the problems we were facing up to then.
David Luiz didn’t exactly cover himself in glory as his defensive discipline left a lot to be desired but I still believe him to be a better option than Gary Cahill. The Brazilian was the most improved player of the last campaign so we know how good he can be and Mourinho will no doubt be having words with him. Ashley Cole was another culprit defensively today as he was nowhere near the play at times during Newcastle’s counter attacks and didn’t offer enough going forward either.
Fans will be worried that we could be looking at the beginnings of another November slump but Mourinho is as disappointed as we are and has a few decisions to make selection-wise, especially if he wants to remedy Chelsea’s problems in central midfield in particular.
