Jose Mourinho: No Chelsea relegation battle despite Bournemouth defeat

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."

While Mourinho says his side will recover from their recent form, he says the Blues must forget about Champions League qualification for the moment and instead focus on catching the top six.

"Chelsea will never be fighting for relegation -- no chance," he told reporters. "Chelsea will win matches and come out of that area. That's not the problem. The problem is that our objective is to finish in the top four -- maybe now we have to think about top six."

He later said in the postmatch media conference: "Let's think about winning the next game and forget targets. To fix targets at this moment with our inconsistency is difficult."

Mourinho claimed Chelsea were denied a "clear" penalty by referee Mike Jones after Diego Costa -- left on the bench until half-time -- saw his cutback hit Simon Francis on the arm, and also questioned Bournemouth players for repeatedly heading to the touchline to take drinks breaks.

"We dominated the game but one refereeing mistake cost us," he told Sky. "It was a clear handball, with the result at 0-0, but that's part of the game. In the first half we were not aggressive enough. We had a couple of shots and chances, but in the second half we were much more aggressive.

"We tried in the period where we were stronger but this is the moment when they scored the goal and with five minutes to go with a team that was defending, some people call it intelligent, some people call it lack of play.

"You know, time-outs, stop of the play, asking for a medical department to go in to drink for a minute like in basketball. But they did very well."

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. Stability in performances has a big relation with individual performances and we had today again a couple that you need more, you expect more and they don't give enough."

Asked if Costa's introduction had made a positive difference, he said: "We were stronger in the second half but it was not because of Diego -- it was the attitude, the intensity, the aggressiveness. We started pressing much higher and sooner.

"I'm concerned and I was concerned before this game. You can imagine now after this defeat at home."

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."

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."