Chelsea aren’t invincible but we’re better than everyone, says Jose Mourinho

Once he had dismissed defeat as an unfortunate ‘anomaly’ and, childishly, the fault of the ball boys, Jose Mourinho sought necessary to declare what his team had failed to prove on the pitch – ‘We are better than anybody else’.

The Premier League table, of course, supports his assertion. But, for the second successive weekend in the North-East, the Chelsea boss was on the defensive.

Five points have been surrendered at Sunderland and now Newcastle, the gap to Manchester City shrunk from eight to three.

Mourinho, however, felt the need to serve a reminder amid the hyperbole of their first defeat of the season.

‘We are top of the league,’ he said. ‘Nobody has done better than us. Everyone would like to be in our position. So we are more than fine. We are better than anybody else.’

But they were not better than Newcastle, proof that resistance resides within a league which many expected them to waltz through undefeated.

In the course of seven days, Gus Poyet – who stifled the league leaders in a goalless draw – and Alan Pardew have co-authored the manual on how to contain and expose the title favourites – it should be on the wish-list of every top-flight manager this Christmas.

Mourinho, though, will not be penning the foreword in support of the uprising.

‘We were unlucky. It is as simple as that. The best team lost. The team that tried to win, lost,’ he sounded.

For people like me who have been in football for so long you have to accept this anomaly.

‘Newcastle did what they always do. They defended. They fought hard. They tried to counter attack when it was possible. This is the way they play against us.’