Didier Drogba was given his first start for Chelsea and it ended in frustration as he failed to score an easy goal that would have put his side in a good position to win.
Referee Ivan Bebek played a key role in both goals, as he ignored claims for fouls in the build ups to Chelsea’s opener and Schalke’s equaliser.
Drogba was handed his first start since scoring the winning penalty for Chelsea in the 2012 Champion’s league final against Bayern Munich, it only took him nine minutes to make his first contribution. He found Ramires with a cross from the left but the Brazilian produced a weak shot.
Mourinho also handed starts to summer signing Filipe Luis at left-back and kept faith with goalkeeper Thiabut Courtois.
Schalke found themselves in the wrong end of a refereeing decision when they conceded on the 11th minute, Fabregas produced a late challenge on Max Meyer that left the midfielder in agony while Eden Hazard picked up the loose ball and set up Fabregas to score the first Chelsea goal.
Hazard was causing a lot of trouble for the Schalke defence every time he was on the ball. Drogba struggled with the pace of the game and didn’t make the kind of impact fans expected him to have done. He first missed his kick in front of goal after being teed up by William and then shot wide with just Schalke goalkeeper Ralf Fahrmann to beat. His missed chances were compounded further as his miss on the 60th minute was followed by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s equaliser.
“Didier had a positive game,” Mourinho said. “I’m happy with what he did. If he scores that goal we’d be speaking about 2-0, not 1-1, and him scoring a goal with fantastic movement and a great shot. I’m not disappointed with a striker because, one inch, he doesn’t score or not. He had a positive performance. I’m happy with that.”
Substitute Remy saw a shot headed off the line by Roman Neustadter and Hazard went close to winning the game for Chelsea on two occasions in the final minutes.
“In the last 15 minutes, Rémy, Terry, Hazard could all score,” Mourinho said. “We had so many great situations, but that’s football. Defending like they did is also football. Good point for them.
“Not a fantastic point for us, but still a point. In a short competition of six matches, one point is one you get and two you don’t.”
Jose Mourinho also revealed that his top striker Diego Costa cannot play three games a week because of his hamstring problem.
“Costa has a problem and he can’t play in this moment three matches in a week,” Mourinho said. “If he has one week to let the muscle recover, he can start again like he has been since he had that problem with the national team. But three days, after Saturday, is not enough. It was not to protect him for the game for Sunday, but because today he was not in the condition after Saturday.
“He came to us and was completely fine. He had a problem again in the national team, not with us. And now we have a problem and now we have to resolve it as best we can. Today he was not in condition to play. Sunday we believe he is. Next week, against Bolton, for sure he isn’t. We have to manage the situation until the moment he’s completely fine.
“I don’t know [how long that will be]. If today he had started the game, for sure he could not play on Sunday. We have to go step by step.”