The champions slumped to their eighth defeat of the season as Glenn Murray’s header sealed a shock 1-0 win for AFC Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
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The Blues had no answer and went down to yet another Premier League defeat which leaves them marooned in 14th spot in the table and 14 points off a top four spot.
Jose Mourinho thinks the top six is now Chelsea’s most realistic objective after his side was beaten 1-0 by Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
It’s also worrying that Bournemouth looked more threatening offensively than Chelsea themselves in the first half, although the second one was an nearly complete sweep by the unlucky home team.
“I’m concerned obviously, I was concerned before this game”, Mourinho told Sky Sports.
Three Premier League sides, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Sunderland, have all changed managers so far this season and while Mourinho signed a new four-year deal in August, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is notoriously impatient with his managers. On Wednesday we have to win to make sure we qualify. Of course not scoring enough goals.
“The referee also made an important mistake but that’s part of the game…It is a clear penalty, clear handball”.
After being introduced as a substitute in the second half of Chelsea’s defeat against Bournemouth, Costa failed to get on the end of an inviting cross from Branislav Ivanovic that simply needed to be poked into the net. I have no doubts about that but I think if you analyse matches and especially match after match, you can clearly identify a few players who find it hard to be consistent.
“If our players are not able to give the maximum every day that is a problem”, he added. “The creation is collective, but the finishing is something very individual and at this moment we’re not having that”.
Chelsea travel to Premier League leaders Leicester City after their match against Porto in midweek and Courtois is confident they can get a good result against Claudio Ranieri’s men, too.
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“They played in a way that some call intelligent, some say is not fair play”, he said. “When it’s 0-0 after 80 minutes they were more nervous than us because we don’t expect anything out of these games really”. We have been hit with a lot of things – the injuries and some dominant performances that haven’t won games – and it has been tough.
