Despite exiting in just the fourth round of the Capital One Cup, Chelsea manager José Mourinho was in defiant mood, claiming his players made the critics look “stupid.”
Chelsea dominated large spells of the game either side of Jonathan Walters fabulous strike, with Stoke City’s Jack Butland pulling off a number of impressive saves to keep the Potters narrowly ahead.
Chelsea deservedly equalised in injury time thanks to a Loic Remy strike, only to lose on penalties with Butland saving from last season’s Player of the Year Eden Hazard to knock the holders out of the cup.
Per the BBC, Chelsea enjoyed 59% possession and 24 attempts at goal – nine of which were on target, compared to Stoke’s five. They also won 11 corners to Stoke’s two.
Mourinho stated after the game that his players quashed any rumours of a mutiny, both in terms of the quality of the performance and the work rate.
For me it would be a fantastic situation if the players are against me, I can say, you don’t have results because the players are against me. What some people write and say is really bad for the players. Most of the people that do that used to be players. think they think my players are like them when they were players. Maybe they were able to do that. My players tried everything.
