Saturday 29 August 2015 18:46, UK
Jose Mourinho paid tribute to Crystal Palace for their 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge but feels Chelsea should have had a spot-kick.
Chelsea secured the Premier League title with a 1-0 defeat of Palace in May, but the Eagles were triumphant on this occasion on Saturday thanks to Joel Ward's winner, just as it looked like Radamel Falcao had salvaged a point with his first goal for the hosts cancelling out Bakary Sako's opener.
It was a famous victory for Palace, their first at Stamford Bridge in 33 years, leaving Mourinho unhappy with the first-half tussle which saw Kurt Zouma's shirt tugged by Connor Wickham in the area, to which Craig Pawson waved play on.
But he insisted Palace deserved credit for their performance and said: "The first thought is to Palace. They come with everything. They were lucky but they deserve the luck.
"My team, I think we deserved more. I don't want to say we deserved to win, because it's not true.
"The referee did a big mistake. Clear penalty with the result 0-0 and obviously with influence in the result.
"The one with Zouma that I watch at half-time on television. It was a clear penalty. But I prefer to go in this order, when I say Crystal Palace first."
With his team picking up just four points from four games, Mourinho added: "We have eight points less than the leader and seven and six and five from others. In another league I would say game over.
"In the Premier League, I don't say game over because last season we had seven points to the second and in one month we lost the seven points. On January 1 we were on the same points as the second.
"This is the Premier League and I think it's getting more difficult than before. The reality is that we had a bad start. Four points in four matches is a very bad start."
Mourinho admitted he would reflect on his own decision-making and said he "blamed himself" over his choice of substitutions.
"I cannot say that I had 11 players performing at the same time," he added. "Two or three of them their individual performance was far from good.
"I blame myself for not changing one of them. I kept him in the game for 90 minutes. When I made the third change I realise I needed a fourth and I don't have a fourth."
