Mourinho defends players after Chelsea’s defeat at Everton

Despite the demanding situation, with the Champions League and a London derby against Arsenal looming, Mourinho still found a moment for irony. “To win the title, I don’t know”, Mourinho said.

On being Chelsea’s manager as the title defence unravels he maintained: “It’s a pleasure, an honour”.

Chelsea were outplayed in the opening 25 minutes as Naismith, an early replacement for the injured Muhamed Besic, struck twice and Arouna Kone and James McCarthy forced brilliant saves out of Asmir Begovic.

“For 90 minutes we restricted them to two shots on target – one a terrific strike from Nemanja Matic from long range for their goal and the other was a header from Radamel Falcao”.

The result was in stark contrast to the corresponding fixture last season when the Blues ran out 6-3 victors on Merseyside, and Martinez was pleased with how his players coped against Jose Mourinho’s side this time around.

That has been the story of the Scottish international’s season so far as he has yet to start a game in the Premier League and admitted that he was keen to talk to Norwich.

“We need one big win to come back to our way. But of course it was not because of that that we did not win”.

Naismith has scored 25 goals in 116 appearances for Everton. Every mistake we are punished, immediately.

“I’m still very confident we will finish at the very least in the top three of the league”. “I can not put more pressure on the players – the players are feeling enough sadness and enough frustration, and lack of confidence…. the last thing they need now is for me being critical of them”. It’s not easy to play football with the confidence level low’. “We looked dynamic and strong going forward and the difference was the second-half performance”.

The relationship between the clubs was already strained after Chelsea’s public pursuit of defender John Stones, who had his transfer request rejected by the Merseyside club.