Jose Mourinho Admits He Missed John Terry in the Game Against West Brom

Was it a mistake by substituting Victor Anichebe’s late equaliser on Tuesday, which earned West Brom a 1-1 draw that meant Chelsea were forced to settle for a lead of two points, as opposed to four, at the top of the table?

Anyway, Branislav Ivanovic’s goal in first-half stoppage time had given Mourinho’s team the lead, but their failure to secure maximum points gives both Arsenal and Manchester City, who play on Wednesday, the chance to claim top spot.

“I think it was not very different to the City win because we had a lot of chances to kill the game and we never killed it.
“We went to the last 10 minutes and City had a couple of shots. The difference between that game and this one is that then we never made one defensive mistake.
“Here, in the last 20 minutes, we made a couple of defensive mistakes. In the end I think they deserved it because of their efforts.”

Anichebe, on the pitch 14 minutes as a replacement for Morgan Amalfitano, headed home in the 87th minute to secure a precious point that lifted West Brom out of the bottom three by virtue of goal difference.
Mourinho refused to point the finger at individuals, but he admitted that his team, who were without the injured John Terry, had lacked “personality”.

“I don’t speak about names. We as a team made mistakes,” he said. “I don’t like to individualise and if John is not here, it is not because I don’t want, it is because he can’t.

“He is a guy with big personality and it could be different. We accepted for too long their dominance in the last 20 minutes. We made a couple of defensive mistakes and were punished in one.

“My defensive line started playing too deep. We gave them the ball and waited for them to put it in our box and fight against it. But it is not our game.

“I think also a bit of a lack of personality. We must have the personality to get out. At the end of the day it is one more point and we have one more than the previous day.”

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