Crespo’s cracker spares Blues blushes
The Blues stole all three points with a sensational goal in the third minute of injury time from Hernan Crespo to break the hearts of top-flight new-boys Wigan at the JJB Stadium.
Jewell's side were on course for a deserved point at the start of their inaugural top-flight campaign, only for substitute Crespo to grab the glory.
Within seconds of the goal flying past goalkeeper Mike Pollitt, Mourinho quickly turned to Jewell and whispered words of respite into his ear.
"I told him it was unfair," revealed Mourinho. "You can do nothing at that time. The goal is there and it was unbelievable. The points are on our side, but at the time the game is over. I was saying to him what he already knows, that the result is not fair for him.
"I don't think we deserved to win, although I don't think we deserved to lose either because my 'keeper, my defenders and [Claude] Makelele and [Frank] Lampard fought very hard to keep a clean sheet and in difficult circumstances."
Mourinho was then hard on his players and himself as he added: "To win we need to play better than this.
"The first half was poor. We had no control of the game, no ball possession and the players were out of position. If somebody was trying to understand our system, they would not have done because there was no system. It was too bad to be true.
"In the second half we improved, playing with three at the back which was a risky situation, but we had to do it. You cannot blame certain people for this performance. I blame myself, I blame everybody. We are in the same boat champions together, losing together, playing badly together and improving together.
"I saw the players were prepared and ready for this game, but at the end I thought Wigan played better than us. I think this week I failed because I couldn't prepare them to arrive here and with respect, kill off the opponents."
Mourinho, however, feels his side can only improve in the defence of a title they won so emphatically.
This game reminded Mourinho of last season's opening away game on that occasion it was the second match of the season when they won 1-0 at Birmingham.
"Maybe this is a good sign," suggested Mourinho. "I can only remember one game where we played as bad as this last season and that was at Birmingham when we won with a late, deflected goal from Joe Cole.
"This was a good lesson for us. Normally you lose matches to wake up, but this will serve as a wake-up and we haven't lost the match."
At no stage were Wigan overawed by their more illustrious opponents and they had the better chances before Crespo's late strike to clinch victory themselves.
Record £3.1m signing Henri Camara and Alan Mahon both went close in the first half, while another new face in Damien Francis clipped the crossbar with a header late on.
In the minutes just before Crespo struck, Wigan also enjoyed two clear breakaways from which substitute Andreas Johansson spurned the opportunity to send the majority of a near 24,000 crowd into raptures.
Understandably, Jewell was left "gutted" and he added: "It's football. It's what happens at any level. I'm pig sick and sick for the players because they gave everything. They were magnificent.
"But we cannot afford to feel sorry for ourselves. We've now got to pick ourselves up when we go to Charlton next week. If we apply the same effort there, we'll be OK.
"But there's a long way to go and we have to put this result into perspective because we know if we get results against the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United then they are a bonus.
"The lads are really sick, but I am glad that's the case because it means they should come back from this."
WIGAN: Pollitt, Chimbonda, De Zeeuw, Henchoz, Baines, Teale, Bullard, Francis, Mahon, Camara (Johansson 86), Roberts.
CHELSEA: Cech, Paulo Ferreira, Gallas, Terry, Del Horno, Duff (Crespo 59), Lampard, Makelele, Robben (Wright-Phillips 45), Drogba, Gudjohnsen (Joe Cole 45).
Referee: M Clattenburg (Co Durham).
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