Mourinho laments Chelsea week off

Yakubu scores Boro's third leaving Chelsea skipper John Terry in shock

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has bemoaned the fact his side must wait a whole week before they can bounce back from Saturday's 3-0 defeat at Middlesbrough.

The Blues' next outing after their Riverside mauling is against Colchester in the FA Cup fifth round on Sunday.

"It's a pity we can't play in two or three days as I like to play straight away after a bad game," Mourinho said.

"Now we have to wait until Sunday before we play again. But the players will have to think about this defeat."

The shock reversal was the heaviest defeat in the 20-month reign of Mourinho - and the joint-biggest loss of his whole managerial career.

It was only the third time he has lost a Premiership game - the two other occasions being a 1-0 defeat at Manchester City on 16 October 2004 and a 1-0 loss at Manchester United on 6 November 2005.

Mourinho has only ever lost 14 league games, including Saturday's match at Boro, in his five-and-a-half years as a manager with Benfica, Uniao Leiria, Porto and Chelsea.

The only other occasions on which he has lost by three goals in a league game in his managerial career were on 8 March 2002, when Belenenses beat his Porto side 3-0, and 5 November 2000 when Benfica went down 3-0 at Maritimo.

The Blues chief admits he was stunned by his team's inept performance at the Riverside.

"In my time at Chelsea, this is the third defeat in the Premiership and you can say it was the worst," he said.

"Middlesbrough had a better attitude than us as they need the points to survive.

"But one of the qualities of our team is the way we usually approach games. Every opponent is shown respect and every player starts and ends with maximum concentration.

"That's why we don't lose too many matches and why we keep a good level through the season. So yes, our performance in this game did surprise me."