Mourinho defends players after Chelsea’s defeat at Everton

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho defended his players after their poor start to the season continued with a 3-1 defeat at Everton.

The result means the champions have lost three of their opening five matches of the season and sit 16th in the Premier League table.

Branislav Ivanovic had another poor game at right-back and a number of other Blues players have been well below their best.

But Mourinho said: “I am responsible – the only one responsible. Don’t touch them, touch me. I’m not unhappy with them. I’m completely on their side.

“Nothing is going in their favour, but I have a good feeling about them. I don’t feel I have any reason to be against them.”

Chelsea’s tally of just four points from a possible 15 means they have made their worst start to a top-flight campaign since 1986.

They have lost as many games this season as they lost throughout the whole of last term.

But Mourinho again insisted that their performances have been much better than their results in recent weeks might suggest.

“The players are not getting what they deserve,” he said.

“They deserve better results, it’s as simple as that. From the first game of the season until now they deserve better results than they got.

“Even the game against Man City, when we lost 3-0, for the whole of the second half we were the best team.”