Stoke 3 Chelsea 2: We’re in trouble, admits Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho admitted that Chelsea are “in trouble” after watching his side slip to third in the table following a defeat at Stoke City.

Andre Schurrle’s low shot gave the Blues the lead after just nine minutes at the Britannia Stadium, but Peter Crouch’s close-range finish drew the home side level before half-time.

Substitute Stephen Ireland then fired the Potters into the lead, before Schurrle’s half-volley hauled Mourinho’s men level.

We showed great character after the disappointment of conceding an early goal

Mark Hughes

But Oussama Assaidi, on loan from Liverpool, scored a superb late winner to hand Mark Hughes’ men all three points and condemn the west Londoners to their third defeat of the season.

“I don’t feel comfortable enough to tell you what I think about the game. We’re in trouble,” Mourinho told Sky Sports.

“I prefer to be simple and pragmatic and say they scored one more goal than us. They won and we lost. I can’t go much further than because I can’t analyse with you certain aspects of the game.

“It is a concern [conceding many goals recently]. I don’t like it, I don’t organise my teams to be like this. Sometimes mistakes kill an organisation.”

Meanwhile, Stoke boss Hughes praised his side’s resilience after coming from behind to stun the visitors.

“We showed great character after the disappointment of conceding an early goal,” Hughes said.

“I thought the response was exemplary and the quality of the goals for both sides was outstanding. I really enjoyed the game.”

He added: “They are a good team individually and collectively and at times we struggled to work out their rotations and their movement, but we stuck at it.

“In the second half we were excellent. We upped our intensity to match them. Chelsea asked a lot of questions but we always had a threat.”