Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho: I knew we were in trouble after 10 seconds against Manchester City... the start wasn't good

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Jose Mourinho feared that his game plan could be in tatters after just 10 seconds of a comprehensive defeat at the Etihad, leading to his shock decision to substitute captain John Terry in the Premier League for the first time.

When Manchester City danger man Sergio Aguero raced clear of the Chelsea back-line moments after kick-off to force the first of several smart saves from Asmir Begovic, Mourinho realised that the defensive strategy he had put in place last week was already crumbling.

‘When the game started and 10 seconds later you have Aguero behind the defensive line and facing Begovic, immediately you get the notion that the start wasn’t good,’ he said. ‘After that he made two or three saves because of that fragility.

Jose Mourinho says he knew his side was in trouble from the moment the game kicked off

Sergio Aguero, who scored once, caused Chelsea all kinds of problems throughout the clash 

‘I was the first one to be disappointed. All week you are speaking about movements, directions of the game, mechanisms, Aguero’s runs and Aguero’s positions, the wingers coming inside, and after 10 seconds Aguero is in the face of Begovic. We were defensively poor in the first half.’

In 177 previous league games under Mourinho at Chelsea, Terry had not once been substituted. But Mourinho soon came to the conclusion that he needed the pace of Kurt Zouma to play a higher defensive line in the second half, and replaced his captain at half-time.

‘The point was not to take John out it was to bring Zouma in – I wanted my fastest player on the pitch, not on the bench,’ added Mourinho. ‘It was clear for me that Zouma has to play. I had to bring one out and I brought out my captain. He was on the bench and still my captain because the armband is just the armband.

‘I can tell you that he was not dancing in the dressing-room, and I can tell you also that he was not having a bad reaction. He did what everybody does. The manager says “this guy comes in and that guy goes out”, and they all do the same. They wait for the team to go out, they shower and change and go back to the bench.

The Argentinian could have had a hat-trick before he slotted home the opener at the Etihad Stadium

Mourinho looks fed up as he watched his side slip to a heavy defeat to Manchester City on Sunday

‘My decision was proven right because we controlled the depth of the game and the counter-attack totally. But John is a player with my entire confidence for sure. With me, he was never substituted but with other managers he was not even selected. He was not playing or people thought his career at Chelsea was over.

‘I don’t know if you ask many questions to [Rafa] Benitez, [Andre] Villas-Boas, [Roberto] Di Matteo, the ones who never played him. I’m the one you shouldn’t ask because I’m the one who played him every game, made him captain and recovered him from a difficult situation with other managers. I’m the one who has the right to look at the game and to say I want Zouma on.’

While Sky Sports pundit Niall Quinn predicted that ‘it’s the beginning of the end for Terry’, Graeme Souness believes Mourinho was sending out a message to owner Roman Abramovich that he needs more defenders.

Although Chelsea have completed the £21.7million signing of Augsburg left-back Baba Rahman, they have failed with two bids for Everton’s John Stones.

Souness said: ‘I think it’s the manager trying to make a statement to the owner in as much that he needs more players. I think he was emphasising that point to the owner by the actions of taking Terry off and introducing [Juan] Cuadrado on later.’

Mourinho claimed Fernandinho should have been sent off for an alleged elbow on Diego Costa, and that Yaya Toure should have received a second yellow card. He also disagreed with his old rival Manuel Pellegrini that the 3-0 scoreline was not a fair reflection, calling it ‘completely fake’.

The Blues boss made the controversial decision to sub captain John Terry (centre left) at half time

Zurt Zouma (right) was brought on to add some much-needed pace to the Chelsea backline

‘In the first half the best team was winning, in the second half the best team was Chelsea,’ said Mourinho. ‘If the 1-0 result after our second half had been unfair in my opinion, imagine 2-0 or 3-0?

‘Everybody knew that 1-0 was a result they wanted to keep and were having trouble keeping. Then second goal, mistake. Third goal, mistake.’

However, City boss Pellegrini thought that Chelsea were lucky to escape with just a three-goal defeat. He said: ‘I think in the first half we deserved at least three or four goals. Our team played better than 3-0, it was the minimum that we deserved.’

Valencia have offered to sell their centre-back Nicolas Otamendi to City for around £28.5m. The Spaniards, who still owe City a substantial amount from striker Alvaro Negredo’s £24m move to the Mestalla this summer, would like to take Eliaquim Mangala on loan in return.

Nicolas Otamendi, who was also linked with Manchester United, looks poised to move to City