Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho confessed after Saturday's away clash with Newcastle that he holds the Magpies ball boys responsible for his side's 2-1 loss, their first defeat of the season.
The Blues, who currently lead the English Premier League table with 36 points, saw their 23-match unbeaten run come to an end at St. James' Park after a brace from Senegalese forward Papiss Cisse guided Alan Pardew's crew to a impressive win over the west London side, as Chelsea's advantage at the top of the table was slashed to only three points by closest rivals Manchester City.
Mourinho, after witnessing his chances of emulating arch-nemesis Arsene Wenger's "Invincibles" side of 2004 burn up in flames, blamed tactics such as time wasting strategies for the defeat.
"We wanted to play more football, but that was not possible because a few things that I thought didn't belong any more to top level football but still belongs - the ball disappears, the ball doesn't come, another ball comes, the ball boys they run away," Mourinho stated.
"These are the kinds of situation which our unfortunately still part of the game. You didn't see that the ball disappeared? They keep the ball, they hide the ball, we want to play, no ball. When one ball comes the second ball appears again. This kind of strategy.
EPL leaders Chelsea suffered their first defeat of the season after losing 2-1 to 10-men Newcastle, on Saturday
Jose Mourinho, however, was not pleased with the St. James' Park defeat, blaming the loss on time wasting by the Magpies ball boys
The former Real Madrid boss also told BBC Sport: "My team lost the way I like to lose which is to give everything and being unlucky. Only one team played to win. After the second goal the team lost their emotional balance. A point was the minimum we deserved.
"There could have been 20 minutes stoppage time but the situation would have been the same because things were happening outside the four lines that the referee couldn't control.
"The referee can't punish the ball boy who disappeared with the ball, the referee couldn't punish the people in the crowd who kept the ball. I'm not obsessed with records and statistics, that's not for me, I want to win the league."
