Mourinho blames Newcastle ball boys for defeat

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, has blamed the ball boys at Newcastle, for their 2-1 loss at St James Park, which ended their unbeaten start to this campaign.

Papiss Cisse came off the bench to grab a double, as Mourinho once again failed to win at St James Park. After the match, the Portuguese coach expressed his frustration at the ball boys and their delaying tactics.

“We wanted to play more football, but that was not possible because a few things that I thought didn’t belong any more to top level football but still belongs – the ball disappears, the ball doesn’t come, another ball comes, the ball boys they run away,” Mourinho told BT Sport.

“These are the kinds of situation which are unfortunately still part of the game. You didn’t see that the ball disappeared? They keep the ball, they hide the ball, we want to play, no ball. When one ball comes the second ball appears again. This kind of strategy.

He added to BBC Sport: “My team lost the way I like to lose which is to give everything and being unlucky. Only one team played to win. After the second goal the team lost their emotional balance. A point was the minimum we deserved.

“There could have been 20 minutes stoppage time but the situation would have been the same because things were happening outside the four lines that the referee couldn’t control.

“The referee can’t punish the ball boy who disappeared with the ball, the referee couldn’t punish the people in the crowd who kept the ball. I’m not obsessed with records and statistics, that’s not for me, I want to win the league.”