José Mourinho admitted Chelsea’s start to the Premier League season represents the worst set of results in his career but denied he is under pressure after losing 3-1 at Everton.

“Pressure is being a refugee,” the Chelsea manager said. “I enjoy my job, it is a pleasure and an honour to be in charge of Chelsea, even if the results are the worst of my career. I am not feeling pressure. The results are not adapted to my quality and my status but I am coping well with the situation. I am the best man for the job. I don’t think there is a better man to come in and do it.”

Three defeats in five games, a mere four points on the board with 12 goals in the debit column is not what anyone was expecting, however, and Roman Abramovich can only have viewed this latest setback with alarm. Chelsea are simply not performing in the manner that won them the title last season, and though Mourinho was unwilling to concede this season’s title so early in the race he did accept that quick improvement is necessary.

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“We need to improve a lot, I don’t know if we can still win the title but I know we can win against Arsenal next week,” he said. “We need to win a couple of consecutive matches, we need to get our confidence back. We need the players to smile again and we need the central defenders to stop making mistakes. It is not easy to play football when your confidence is low. We are a team playing with doubts, because of the bad results we have had and because everything is going against us. I agree we are making mistakes, but at the moment it seems every mistake we make is getting punished.

“We deserved a better result at Everton, and after coming back from two goals down we were controlling the second half, then the first time they crossed the halfway line they scored another. We need to return to the way we were when we beat Everton 6-3 last season. When you are winning like that you play with confidence and create lots of clear chances. That is not happening for us at the moment and we need to get it back. Once we get a couple of wins we can look at the overall situation, it depends on us.”

Roberto Martínez was pleased with the result, particularly as leaflets branding Bill Kenwright’s time at the club as a failure were being circulated among home supporters before kick-off. “The chairman has just turned 70 and this was the perfect birthday present,” the Everton manager said. “We looked dynamic going forward, we only let them have two attempts on target and we scored three goals from open play.

“It showed the confidence we have in the squad now – some of the young players were particularly impressive. It was a great win over a team that won the league by a mile last season, but I still think we can play a lot better.”