• Premier League

Mourinho expects Cole to return to form

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is confident defender Ashley Cole will bounce back after again being forced to sit on the bench in Saturday's 2-2 draw with West Brom.

Spaniard Cesar Azpilicueta regained his starting place in the left-back position and continued to prove himself an apt replacement for Cole.

But Mourinho has suggested Azpilicueta may only temporarily be ahead of the England international and believes Cole will take his demotion as a wake up call.

"I can make mistakes, I can be unfair, for sure I am and for sure I do that, but I always give a lot of thought to my decisions," he said. "I decided for Azpilicueta to play against Schalke and he was fantastic. On Saturday he was very good again.

"Ashley is a top professional, he is a fighter. He has to work hard, to fight hard because the place (in the team) is his place.

"Of course it is not Azpilicueta's best position, and it is not a position where Ashley can think that he is in trouble now. No, he has to just to work and fight and the position is there waiting for him, no problem."

The Portuguese boss admitted his disappointment at the dropped points against Albion, but he was impressed by the Blues' resilience after going 2-1 down.

"When they scored second it is easy to die, especially for a team who played two days ago and had players who were tired," said Mourinho. "I risked and gambled a lot, but the players have to accept that if they are scared of it, then I can't do it.

"Everything we did was because of a strong personality. We had a bad result, because drawing at home to West Brom isn't a good result, but we rescued a point."

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