‘We are calm’: Chelsea not spooked by slow start, even with troublesome West Brom next

Chelsea visit the difficult grounds of West Bromwich Albion on Sunday on the heels of a one-point-from-six start, but Jose Mourinho is stressing the champions remain composed.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho shown before his side's loss to Manchester City last Sunday. Andrew Yates / Reuters / August 16, 2015

After a testing week, a visit to West Bromwich Albion on Sunday is the one of the last assignments Jose Mourinho would have chosen for his spluttering Chelsea side.

The two clubs routinely occupy very different parts of the Premier League table but West Brom have exerted a powerful hold over Chelsea at The Hawthorns in recent years.

The champions have left empty-handed on three of their last four visits, claiming a solitary point on the other.

And it was only in May that West Brom humbled then champions-elect Chelsea with a comfortable 3-0 win.

Hardly the ideal destination then, for a side looking to correct a worrying start to the season that has left them with just one point and a growing list of problems after the opening two games of the season.

Last Sunday’s 3-0 defeat at Manchester City turned the spotlight firmly on Mourinho and his players, with the manager’s decision to substitute captain John Terry at half-time interpreted in some quarters as an expression of frustration at the club’s failure to strengthen his squad sufficiently.

Since then Pedro has been brought in from Barcelona and Baba Rahman, the 21-year-old left-back, has arrived from Augsburg.

More signings are possible before the end of the transfer window, with Everton centre-back John Stones still a target.

Mourinho’s team, though, need a more immediate lift and the Portuguese knows victory this weekend will go a long way towards drawing a line under a difficult start to the campaign.

“We normally train very well but this week we trained better than ever. Why? Because we are not happy,” Mourinho said.

“I’m not happy with the results and the players are not happy with the results.

“We want to do better and there is only one way, which is to work well and better than ever, which we did this week.

“Do we have to improve? Obviously, always, but we are calm. Not happy but calm. We need to be unhappy because that feeling makes you work, but to be calm is important.”

Mourinho will assess the fitness of his two new signings before deciding whether to include them in his squad, but Oscar and Victor Moses are ruled out with injuries, while Thibaut Courtois will return in goal following a one-match ban.

Meanwhile, Chelsea’s visit to the Midlands could mark Saido Berahino’s last match as a West Brom player.

The club turned down Tottenham Hotspur’s £15 million (Dh86.5m) offer for the 22-year-old last week, but the North Londoners are set to return with an improved bid.

Manager Tony Pulis desperately wants Berahino to remain at The Hawthorns but knows it may be tough.

“We want Saido to stay,” he said. “You never say never in football. There are players of greater stature than Saido that people have said they would never sell, then in the end they sell them, so you never say never.

“But we would like Saido to stay. We think it would be in his interests football-wise to stay at this club and we will do our damndest to keep him.”

Adding to Pulis’s transfer frustration, West Brom’s bid to sign Federico Fazio from Tottenham has fallen through.

West Brom had agreed a deal with Spurs for the defender, but Fazio has opted against a permanent move although it could still be revived as a loan arrangement.

Before the transfer broke down, Pulis insisted that deal had no bearing on the Berahino situation.

“That deal has got absolutely nothing at all to do with Saido’s position at this club,” he said.

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