Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has claimed that his side's early penalty miss helped them rather than hindering them in Wednesday night's 4-0 victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Eden Hazard blasted over the bar from the spot after just six minutes at Stamford Bridge before goals from Willian, Oscar, Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas secured a comfortable victory for the Premier League champions.
Mourinho said that the "test" of that early setback spurred his team on to kickstart their European campaign, but he admitted that the win does not paper over the cracks of their poor start to the domestic season.
"I am happy with the result and with the performance, but the same way that I was not in hell with bad results I am not now in heaven because we won one game," he told BT Sport.
"It was a good victory, you could see from minute one that we were going to win the game. Missing the penalty was a good thing to test the team, we [needed to] be really strong to believe. I know some experts will say Maccabi are not a top team, I agree, but they are a Champions League team and to beat a team you need to play well and we played well.
"The most important thing was to win. We were good in the different phases of the game. The players have played very well, they showed a good attitude, good with the ball, it was a good victory."
Chelsea must now turn their attention to hosting fellow Champions League competitors Arsenal at Stamford Bridge in this Saturday's early kickoff as they look to improve upon a poor start to the defence of their Premier League crown which has seen them win just one of their first five matches.
Tom Nightingale
