Mourinho: Chelsea will not be relegated

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has dismissed talk that his side could be relegated despite slipping to another surprise defeat against Bournemouth.

José Mourinho has admitted a top-six finish, and its associated qualification for the Europa League, might represent the extent of Chelsea’s lingering Premier League ambitions this season after Bournemouth condemned the ailing champions to an eighth defeat of the campaign to move out of the bottom three.

And against the run of play, Bournemouth’s goal came in the 82nd minute when Chelsea failed to clear a corner and Glenn Murray sent a diving header in the net less than two minutes after coming on as a substitute.

Fabregas arguably stood out as Chelsea’s poorest player today.

“I don’t think we’ve defended too badly this season, just individual mistakes and a few setbacks and disappointments have come our way, but the players have come in every day working hard, focused on the next game and tried to improve themselves”.

Here is how Twitter reacted to Fabregas’ poor display, with some fans eager for Chelsea teen Ruben Loftus-Cheek to replace him.

Bournemouth’s players celebrate beating Chelsea after the English Premier League soccer match between Chelsea and AFC Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge stadium in London, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015. There were still a couple of shots and chances but in the second half we arrived in risky positions a lot of time with a lot of crosses from the right-hand side, especially from Branislav Ivanovic.

Chelsea were left aggrieved they weren’t awarded a penalty and Mourinho was left convinced that the “important mistake” was a turning point in the game. “Before this game it was realistic to think that our quality would take us out of this position, but maybe now we have to think about top six”.

No wonder then that Bournemouth’s 1-0 victory at Stamford Bridge on Saturday was acclaimed by manager Eddie Howe as “the best individual result in the club’s history”.

Matt Ritchie said: “I wouldn’t have thought they’d fancy it. We’ll try to make it a tough game for them”. I’m really disappointed with the result, not so disappointed with the performance but very disappointed with the result.

“I explain the inconsistency with unlucky details”, Mourinho said.

“We don’t deserve this result”.

“In the first half we were a bit passive and didn’t press enough, ” Mourinho said. Everybody was waiting for our goal and they go there and score’. In the second half everything changed.

“Our objective is to finish top four”, the Portuguese told BBC Sport. The other ones, the short and low ones, if you are in the box you have to attack the ball. We scored one goal to win the game against Norwich.