Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho revealed he did not speak to his players at half-time during their 3-1 win in the west London derby at Fulham.
The Blues were poor during a goalless opening 45 minutes and allowed the bottom-of-the-table Whites a number of clear chances to take the lead.
Mourinho’s side noticeably improved in the second half and won the game through Andre Schurrle’s 16-minute hat-trick.
Mourinho said: “I didn’t say a word to my players at half-time – it was dead silence.
“Normally I give them two or three minutes to arrive, clean, change, but after that they know it’s time for me to start talking.
“They were there and ready for me, but I was not ready for them so I decided not to speak.
“I don’t know if the players or coaches said anything, because I went outside and waited for the second half. It was the first time in my career I did this.
“I need more than 10 minutes to speak about this first half because I have never experienced one like it in my career.
“The first half was really bad for us. I don’t know if they controlled us or if we simply didn’t start, but I was really disappointed in them.”
Schurrle provided three classy finishes to free-flowing Chelsea moves that their opponents were simply no match for.
Mourinho added: “In the second half we changed everything. My team was able to change the intensity of the game.
“We attacked spaces behind the defensive line and were really good. My team showed they are very intelligent because they understood the first half was really poor.”
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This post was last modified on 02/03/2014