It was a simple and time-honoured football shortcoming that Jose Mourinho spoke about after his team finished empty-handed for the first time in the league this season.
An Everton goal nodded in from close-range by Steve Naismith with only seconds to go before half-time was the Blues undoing at Goodison Park, and although the Chelsea manager reflected on mistakes by players he pointed out were senior ones in the build-up to that goal, he took responsibility for those errors and pointed to play at the other end as more responsible for the defeat…
‘We didn’t score goals,’ Mourinho lamented.
‘We had chances and chances and people with experience in football know this happens week after week in football stadiums. If you don’t score, what you create means nothing, and if you don’t create but you score a goal you can win three points. It is a simple story. Artistic football without goals is not good.
‘I don’t think it is a question of sharpness, but perhaps no killer instinct in this game,’ he analysed.
‘For example the first cross from Ramires to Eto’o, open goal, and he just needed to head it right. When Schurrle was in front of [Tim] Howard and he passes the ball back to Eto’o, it was a slow pass and Eto’o had to wait, giving time for [Gareth] Barry to come back. But if it is a fast ball, Eto’o scores an open goal.
‘There was the one Schurrle shot over the bar when he needed to pass the ball into the net, not shoot. Ramires in front of the keeper was not a difficult one. In the second half, an Ivanovic cross and Eto’o at the first post, he has scored 100 of these goals in his career.
‘We train movement and attacking organisation, we train finishing in situations we think we are going to have. The players are good so soon we will score goals according to the production of the football we have.’
On some of the individual performances including debutant Samuel Eto’o…
‘I think the players do have a killer instinct and Samuel was a killer all his career,’ Mourinho said. ‘The situations where he was involved in the game makes me happy, it looked to be a good understanding with the team.
‘Hazard is playing very well and the kid is having a very good evolution, showing maturity. Juan Mata was the same level as the team was.
‘The first half was quite easy to play in midfield as there was lots of space, Everton did not press a lot and it was easy to play between the lines and to get the ball and turn. When it is quite an easy game to score goals, you have to score.
‘I took Mata off, I tried Oscar – the same position but a different player as Mata is more a passer, Oscar more individual creation, and maybe he should have had a penalty.’
On David Luiz who ended the game as part of a defence reduced in numbers when Fernando Torres was brought on for Ashley Cole…
‘He played very well. What happened in the last minutes with a yellow card when maybe it could be a red is the kind of situation that occurs playing the way we were playing. We are not afraid to lose 2-0 to try to get a different result, but David was solid, very dominant and was building from the back.
‘We couldn’t transform what we did and one day we will win when we don’t deserve to win.’