Jose: We struggled today

Chelsea's lead over Liverpool in the league table has been cut to just five points after goals from Dirk Kuyt and Jermaine Pennant secured a well deserved victory for Rafael Benitez's men.

Chelsea rarely threatened as an attacking force but it was at the back - where Paolo Ferreira and Michael Essien formed a makshift central defensive - where Mourinho felt his side had most problems.

He said: "Liverpool are happy today and they deserve to be happy because they played well and deserved to win the game.

"I was hoping we could get through the first 15 minutes without conceding because we had players playing out of position and those players would have gained confidence if we'd made a good start.

"When we went behind after a few minutes and then conceded another shortly after we knew it was going to be very difficult.

"Rafa isn't stupid and I'm not a magician. We had no central defenders and I knew two weeks ago that Crouch and Kuyt would play in this game. The defenders we have could have coped with Bellamy but they couldn't cope with Crouch winning the headers and Kuyt's strength holding the ball up.

"In other games of late we've been able to cope but I knew we'd have problems today and Liverpool did very well."