Jose Mourinho had nothing to celebrate as he managed Chelsea for the 100th time at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League yesterday. His side lost 2-1 at home against Crystal Palace, only the second defeat at home in that ton of matches.
With the club doctor Eva Carneiro still persona non grata from the Chelsea bench, Mourinho had to find someone new to blame for the defeat, so he picked on his players.
"I'm not happy," Mourinho said. "I cannot say that I had 11 players performing at the same time. Two or three of their individual performances were far from good. I blame myself for not changing one of them. When I made the third change I realise I needed a fourth and I don't have a fourth."
Mourinho declined to reveal the name of the fourth player.
Bacary Sako put Palace in front after 65 minutes, but just when Chelsea thought Radamel Falcao had got them back into the game with his first goal for the champions, Joel Ward restored the lead to give Alan Pardew's side their first win at Stamford Bridge in 33 years.
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Mourinho tried to praise Palace, but returned to his default mode to say they were "lucky", especially when he claims Chelsea were denied a penalty after Kurt Zouma's shirt was tugged by Connor Wickham in the first half.
Mourinho said: "They come with everything. They were lucky but they deserve the luck. My team, I think we deserved more. I don't want to say we deserved to win, because it's not true. The referee did a big mistake. Clear penalty with the result 0-0 and obviously with influence in the result."
Chelsea are eight points adrift after four points from four games, the second worst total defending champions have had at this stage of the season. Blackburn started the 1995-6 campaign with three points after four matches.
Mourinho added: "We have eight points less than the leader and seven and six and five from others. In another league, I would say game over. In the Premier League, I don't say game over because last season we had seven points to the second and in one month we lost the seven points. On January 1 we were on the same points as the second."
Chelsea were unable to add to Mourinho's record of 76 home wins as the impressive Palace emulated Sunderland's April 2014 success.
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Their next match is at Everton on September 12 and it remains to be seen which Blue shirt John Stones will be in or whether Chelsea will be reinforced by further arrivals by Tuesday's 6pm transfer deadline.
Pardew said: "You can nick a win here, you can park the bus or whatever you want to call it. I don't think we did that today. We were on the front foot and tried to hurt Chelsea as often as we could."
Palace have now won eight of their 10 away matches in the league under Pardew, who has three victories against Mourinho in the past two seasons, a run he attributed to "a bit of luck".
"I'd have to say as Crystal Palace manager, this was the best performance of the team," Pardew added. "Not because of the victory, but the manner and the way we played. We looked a good team today."
Raheem Sterling scored his first Manchester City goal in the 2-0 defeat of Watford. Sterling opened his City account after his £49m summer move from Liverpool with a close-range 47th minute strike. Fernandinho was also on target as City claimed a fourth successive victory.
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Liverpool suffered a desperate afternoon as they had key man Philippe Coutinho sent off and lost 3-0 to West Ham, the Londoners' first win at Anfield since 1963. The Brazilian will miss Liverpool's trip to Manchester United after the international break.
Manuel Lanzini put the Hammers ahead inside three minutes and Mark Noble doubled the advantage after Dejan Lovren's 29th-minute mistake.
Coutinho was then sent off for a second bookable offence and not even a red card for Noble - West Ham's sixth dismissal this season - could derail the Hammers as Diafra Sakho sewed up matters in stoppage time.
Slaven Bilic, the West Ham manager, said: "Fifty-two years without winning here at a special stadium and we did it in style, we didn't nick it. It was a great performance in 90% aspects of the modern game, so it is more than three points. It is great for everyone. It is one of those games that will be written in the history books of our club - you can't ask for more than winning 3-0 away at Liverpool."
Bilic said the club will appeal Noble's sending off.
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Arsenal beat 10-man Newcastle 1-0 at St James' Park but needed a helping hand to take all three points in the early kick-off.
Fabricio Coloccini deflected Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's 52nd-minute effort in off the post to end Newcastle's resistance after controversial Serbian striker Aleksandar Mitrovic had been dismissed.
Mitrovic, who has now picked up two bookings and a sending-off in his first five appearances for the club, was dismissed just 16 minutes into the game for an over-the-ball tackle on Francis Coquelin and Newcastle spent little time as an attacking force after that.
Stoke had two men sent off in a 1-0 home defeat to West Brom as referee Michael Oliver handed out first-half red cards to Ibrahim Afellay and Charlie Adam.
Affelay was dismissed for slapping Craig Gardner and Adam went for following through on Craig Dawson. Salomon Rondon made nine-man Stoke pay on the stroke of half-time with his first goal since his £12m move from Zenit St Petersburg.
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Aston Villa and Sunderland shared the points in a 2-2 draw after summer signing Yann M'Vila had given the Black Cats an early lead.
Scott Sinclair added to his Capital One Cup hat-trick in last week with a double, one a penalty, to give Villa a half-time lead, but Jeremain Lens equalised for Sunderland seven minutes after the break to give Dick Advocaat's side only their second point of the season.
Callum Wilson was on target for Bournemouth again in the 1-1 home draw with Leicester, following his hat-trick at West Ham.
Wilson's overhead kick put Bournemouth ahead midway through the first half but the Cherries, who had £8m summer signing Tyrone Mings carried off on a stretcher after the break, were pegged back by Jamie Vardy's penalty four minutes from time.
Stones was outstanding, along with goalkeeper Tim Howard, in Everton's 0-0 at Tottenham in a game which was marred by injuries to Tom Cleverley and Moussa Dembele.
Both players were carried from the pitch on a stretcher, Everton midfielder Cleverley in clear pain after being felled by Eric Dier while Tottenham's Dembele departed following a bizarre self-inflicted injury when his right boot appeared to clip his left Achilles.
Spurs dominated for long periods and Harry Kane had the best chance to break the deadlock in a first half one-on-one with Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard, but he was denied and the England striker's wait for a goal this season goes on.
Everton have rejected a £38m bid from Chelsea for Stones, 21, whose manager, Roberto Martinez, said has the potential to become England's captain. "Once more, John was always in control. He's an incredible defender, the way he reads the game and anticipates play," Martinez said.
"He shows incredible composure and you would never say he's only 21 years old. He was under a lot of pressure, so his performance was that of someone who has the potential to become an England captain.
"We have our own ambitions and project, and John is a big part of that. He showed a really strong face against Tottenham."