JOSE MOURINHO HAS slammed his Chelsea players for their first-half display against Newcastle United by rating their performance as ‘minus one out of 10’.
Ayoze Perez opened the scoring for Steve McClaren’s side before Georginio Wijnaldum doubled the hosts’ lead, but the Premier League champions rescued a point with late goals from Ramires and Willian.
“In the first half, from 0 to 10, [Chelsea were] -1. It was that bad,” Mourinho told Sky Sports.
“In the second half we played very well. Ramires and Willian moved the game. They brought more intensity, midfield pressing, more recovery, much more dynamic arriving in dangerous positions. An intensity Newcastle couldn’t cope with.
“The second half was really good. I’m very happy with the second half, really disappointed with the first half. And I have to try to understand why one team can play so bad in one half and so well in another one. In every aspect in the first half we were bad. Poor individual performances, too many. As a consequence of that it’s impossible for a team to be a good, competitive team.”
Loic Remy started in attack in the absence of Diego Costa, who is serving a three-game ban, and Mourinho admits his side missed the Spaniard’s presence.
“Of course [Chelsea missed Costa]. The decision to suspend him, everybody knows that we lose potential when we don’t have him,” said the Chelsea manager.
“So great decision. I have to believe so, it’s difficult to say. It’s not fair to say. I just say that he’s a very important player for us.”
