Mourinho blames 'strange' schedule for Chelsea's lack of focus

It was, in many ways, a disappointing seven days for Chelsea. That might sound perverse when you consider that we played three times, won twice and were denied a clean sweep of things when Robin van Persie scored a late equaliser at Old Trafford last Sunday, but this team is so good that expectations have been raised to what are hitherto perverse levels. The team dropped points, and although it won against Shrewsbury and Queens Park Rangers the level of performance is nowhere near what we'd have liked to see.

When Jose Mourinho isn't slamming the fans or however we'd like to action verb his comments from the weekend, he's considering reasons why the Blues failed to fire at home to QPR, the team I think Chelsea supporters want to see relegated into oblivion more than any other side. And one such reason has to do with the schedule:

The week was very strange. You play Manchester United on the Sunday, on the Monday you travel [to Shrewsbury].. Some of the players had two days off. Some of the others had to go to Shrewsbury immediately and some of them played 90 minutes there. Then some had a free day the next day but it was a working day for the others.

It was a very strange week to work and to be focused. We tried, but the individual performances weren't there [against QPR] and the collective performance was not there too.

Source: ChelseaFC.com.

Mourinho was annoyed with the timing of our Capital One Cup match against Shrewsbury from the off, so at least he's being consistent. And I could see how playing a midweek game in a less important competition on very short rest might throw off the squad. Ultimately, the issue was dealt with and we can now move on to important back-to-back away matches against Maribor and then Liverpool, but it'd be interesting to take a look to see how playing a match on short rest affects form in the one afterwards. Perhaps the manager has a point?