Jose Mourinho launches scathing attack on Chelsea stars after Crystal Palace defeat

A significant number of the team that featured in this desperately disappointing defeat are very unlikely to be around next season having given performances which Mourinho insisted meant the end of Chelsea's title chances.

He pulled very few punches afterwards. Everyone but his back four got the treatment. Time had run out for those who simply lacked the "balls" for his team.

This was a game that signalled both why Crystal Palace will survive, and why Chelsea will more than likely not win the title.

Afterwards Mourinho promised "surgical" improvement on his squad in the summer. And where there is surgery, there is usually blood. And for some it is too late to change the manager's mind.

"The easiest thing to do is to play well and perform when you are not playing for something big," he said. "If in the last part of the season we have an unbelievable performance and some player performs in a beautiful way, that's easy.

"The difficult thing is to perform when you feel the heat. Because of that some are big and some are not so big.

"I don't think it's courage. It's personal qualities. Some players are ready for everything and other players are in their habitat only in some circumstances. For them Stamford Bridge is better than an away game.

"Playing away against Arsenal, City or United or Liverpool is one thing, another is to play Palace, West Brom or Stoke away. Clearly we have players up and down in relation to the profile of the match.

"I can't and I don't need to improve Branislav Ivanovic, Gary Cahill, John Terry. But there are other guys I need to improve. We are doing that step by step. But that's not enough to be champions."

Mourinho went to console a distraught Cahill at the end, crouching to put his arm round the defender.

"I told him he was one of the guys who should not be on the floor," said Mourinho. "He was one of the guys who should walk to the dressing room with pride that he gave everything.

"If someone has to sit on the floor with disappointment it should not be those who gave everything and can take no blame."

This was Chelsea's fifth league defeat of the season, but their second successive away loss. Once again they had the chances to win but looked punchless up front, where Fernando Torres had another wretched game.

He is one of the ones Mourinho was talking about - as is David Luiz in midfield. Frank Lampard, also poor, was also withdrawn.

Andre Schurrle missed a good chance before Palace, who were excellent throughout, began to sense their moment. Then Joel Ward crossed and Terry, trying to clear from Joe Ledley, glanced a header into his own net.

Palace keeper Julian Speroni saved quite brilliantly from Eden Hazard twice, and Terry headed over. But as Chelsea threw everything forward they left gaps and Tony Pulis's side could have had more, Jason Puncheon shooting just wide and Cameron Jerome hitting the post.

And then Torres, presented with the chance of the game by Stuart O'Keefe's dreadful back pass, missed.

Chelsea are not yet out of it, but Mourinho admitted: "In the back of your mind you think you might win, but you have to be realistic.

"How many points did Chelsea finish behind first place in the last two seasons? Fourteen and 25. To be where we are is an important step.

"It's clear to everybody that we need to bring in a striker. We need to make surgical movements in the window." Negotiations for Atletico Madrid's Diego Costa are already under way.

Palace defender Damien Delaney said: "Anyone who has been with us knows that courage is what we're built on.

"Fair play to Mourinho. He came into our changing room, and said well done. We thought that if we sat off, they would as well, and then it kind of becomes who blinks first."