
Jose's new hairstyle didn't work yesterday...
JOSE MOURINHO claims the Premier League title race is wide open after a first league defeat in eight months. The Chelsea chief tried to put a brave face on a 2-0 defeat by Aston Villa by claiming that his side “dominated” a match in which opposition keeper Scott Carson had to make only one save. But after the Blues missed a chance to replace Liverpool at the top of the table, the Stamford Bridge boss insisted the increased spending power of clubs like Villa means that the big four clubs will all drop more points this term.It remains to be seen whether owner Roman Abramovich will be convinced by his manager’s words after the Russian left his seat as soon as Gabriel Agbonlahor scored Villa’s second goal on 88 minutes. Mourinho said: “There are a lot of good teams in the league now. There is a big improvement in the teams below the top four, so it can be more normal for big teams to lose matches and points this season.
“Other teams have spent money, changed their teams and improved — Villa is just one example, you can find lots of others. “It’s more difficult now to fight against these teams — but the table after five matches does not mean much. “It was a good game. Villa played well, Chelsea played well in my opinion.
“We made a mistake we shouldn’t make, because at defensive set-pieces we are usually so well organised. “We were solid in the first half but the match changed after a goal in the first minute of the second half. “Villa were well organised, they had spirit, they defended well to keep a clean sheet. “We had complete domination of the game but didn’t score a goal. A point each would have reflected what happened on the pitch but you pay for mistakes, we made our mistakes and I can’t say they didn’t deserve a win because they didn’t make a mistake.”
Mourinho admits his plans were rocked by a thigh injury to Frank Lampard — and he will await the results of a scan on the knee injury sustained by Didier Drogba in the dying minutes of the defeat. He said: “We lost Lampard on Friday after training — not during group training but in individual work after that. “So all the work we did in the week we had to forget it and try to organise the team on Saturday. I don’t lose many matches and it is more difficult to live with defeat when you are not used to it.”