Mourinho finally accepted blame for Chelseas poor performance and has admitted to the fact that top four is now beyond them.
The Cherries, promoted after winning
the Championship last season, inflicted an eighth league defeat of the campaign
on the Blues, with Glenn Murray's late header securing a 1-0 win which Eddie
Howe lauded as the most significant result in the club's history
Mourinho felt the Blues should have
had a penalty prior to that when a Diego Costa cut-back hit Simon Francis on
the arm and also believed referee Mike Jones was wrong to allow the goal, which
had a hint of offside.
The loss plunged Chelsea into crisis
again and puts Mourinho's position under further scrutiny, two months to the
day since he was subject of the first vote of confidence in Roman Abramovich's
12-year ownership.
Asked if he still has the confidence
of the club, Mourinho said: "Yes, I believe." The Portuguese again
insisted he had no "right" to demand transfer activity in January.
"The owner and the board are
not responsible for the bad moments," he added. "The responsibility
for the bad moment is my responsibility and the players' responsibility."
Mourinho also appeared to concede
defeat in Chelsea's bid to reach the top four and qualify for the Champions
League. "Our objective is to finish top four," he told Sky Sports.
"Before this game it was
realistic to think that our quality would take us out of this position, but
maybe now we have to think about top six."
He later told the post-match media
conference: "Let's think about winning the next game and forget targets.
To fix targets at this moment with our inconsistency is difficult."
The Blues boss thought his side had
turned a corner with last Sunday's goalless draw at Tottenham, only to oversee
another woeful display. Mourinho was scathing in his criticism of his some of
his Chelsea players, although he insisted he was not disappointed with the
performance, only the result.
"I explain the inconsistency
with unlucky details," Mourinho said. "You cannot have bigger details
than one penalty that is not given and one goal offside that decides the game.
We are always unlucky in these little details.
"But apart from that,
inconsistency has also to do with individual inconsistency. With some players,
you don't know when they are performing really well and when the performances
is below level, it's difficult. When you get good momentum and good consecutive
results, it's because you have stability in performances."
Mourinho insisted Chelsea did not
need a new striker, despite again starting Costa on the bench, but rued missed
opportunities which will not register among the official statistics.
"We had enough chances and more
than chances we had a lot of half chances and we couldn't touch the ball, which
is disappointing," Mourinho said.
"If you are in the box, you
have to attack the ball and touch. These are big chances that we have to
score."
Mourinho has often fallen foul of
disciplinary regulations this season and has a suspended one-match stadium ban
hanging over him, so refused to go further in his comments on the key
decisions.
"It was a penalty and the goal
is offside, but the referee made a mistake and the linesman made another
mistake," Mourinho added. "That's football."
However, Bournemouth counterpart
Howe disagreed with Mourinho's view of Chelsea's penalty appeal.
"I think Simon's committed to
his slide," he said. "His arm's there, it's not moved towards the
ball. I think that would've been extremely harsh."
On the magnitude of the win for a
club who have flirted with extinction, Howe said: "I think it's at the
very top. We've never been in the Premier League before, so when you come to
the champions and beat them, I think it must rank as the best individual result
of the club's history."
It meant even more for the Cherries
given the injuries to key personnel this season.
"It gives the players some
reward for how hard they've worked," Howe added. "It's only one game
but it does give us a huge boost going into the Christmas period."
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