UEFA Champions League Group G/Real Betis v Chelsea: Jose Mourinho may be sick of Arsene Wenger talking about Chelsea and suggesting the team could be about to stutter but he accepted yesterday that his players' recent defending has not matched the standards he would like. It must be comforting for a manager to be able to chastise his squad gently while they lead the Premiership and their Champions League group, and it was a relaxed Mourinho who called for fewer errors from his side.
Chelsea have kept one clean sheet in six matches, particularly surprising when they conceded only one goal in their opening nine games. The new frailty has not proved too harmful with the team scoring on a regular basis but it did contribute to a Carling Cup exit at home to Charlton and Mourinho listed a series of mistakes when asked where his team can get better.
"There's always space for improvement," he said. "When I look back over the last weeks, of course I was surprised with some defensive mistakes we made. Maybe if you had asked me one month ago I would have said to you we are defending perfectly.
"We were beating records and certainly in the last matches we made mistakes for the penalty at Everton and the goal against Charlton. We made two mistakes against Blackburn and we made another mistake against Bolton and we are conceding too many goals compared with the past.
"I think the secret is to improve in some different areas but not to lose the things that you are very strong at."
A second old strength Mourinho would like to recover is Chelsea's ability to win away in Europe. A victory here at Real Betis would guarantee passage to the next round but they have not got maximum points on their Champions League travels for a day short of a year, when they beat CSKA Moscow.
Chelsea welcome back Damien Duff tonight, 22 days after the winger had a knee operation and was told by the surgeon he would miss four to six weeks.
"Duff is a great player and a special character," Mourinho said. "He's very important for us as a player and I think he gave a great example of how important it is to be a tough guy to recover (so quickly) from an injury like this."
Duff is especially keen for European success after Ireland's exit from the World Cup.
"I'm going to be missing out with Ireland next summer, so it's even more important to me," he said.
Betis star Joaquin noted that Chelsea are not unbeatable but his club's spirits are low. Since their 4-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge they have lost three straight games, conceded 10 goals, lost five players to injury and slipped to 17th in La Liga.
M Ruiz de Lopera, 7.45 On TV: Sky Sports Xtra
