Jose Mourinho brought his players back down to earth after Chelsea consolidated their position at the top of the table.
Early goals from Diego Costa and Eden Hazard helped Chelsea breeze past West brom at Stamford bridge but Mourinho stressed they cannot be compared with any great Chelsea team…….yet.
“Only John Terry and Didier Drogba have won things with Chelsea, no one else in the team,” said Mourinho.
“These guys have to win if they want to be seen as a great team. They have to win. It is not just about playing beautiful football or being autumn champions.
“When they win trophies we can compare them with other teams.”
The Portuguese was also apologetic about the criticism levelled at the fans after the flat atmosphere during their last home games against QPR.
“The atmosphere in the crowd improved a lot,” he said. “There was no comparison. But they pay me to coach and win matches not to be critical of the crowd. I feel sorry for my comments of a couple of weeks ago . Today the difference was amazing.”
Chelsea were 20 up in half an hour and Albion were reduced to ten men after Claudio Yacob was sent off for a wild lunge at Diego Costa. Albion manager Alan Irvine disputed one decision but agreed with another.
He claimed Costa was offside when he opened the scoring after eleven minutes. “Offside – so how can I blame my defence for that? They pushed out before the cross came in.
“But I do not dispute the sending off. I thought it was understandable, “ he said. “If you leave the ground with both feet you are not in control of your body. I have watched it back.”
And Mourinho praised the way Albion regrouped with ten men. “They did well,” he told Irvie who added:”It is hard enough to come here with eleven men, never mind ten,” said Irvine.
Mourinho agreed he looked dissatisfied at times in the second half.
“Annoyed ? I am always annoyed !” he smiled. “But sometimes you have to realise there are reasons. Players have been away with their national teams and played two matches in a row. Then there is the travel and we have not been able to train.
“And the players know they have a marathon of matches coming up – starting on Tuesday in Germany against Schalke.”