AFTER he claimed victory following a draw at Everton there was trepidation in the air as José Mourinho walked out of Stamford Bridge as a loser for the first time last night, but the Chelsea manager took the penalty shoot-out defeat to Charlton Athletic with good grace. It cannot have been easy for Mourinho to lose his 36-match unbeaten home record in a game that Chelsea controlled, but despite claiming they were unlucky to lose there were no sour grapes, not the merest hint of a whine.

If he was searching for scapegoats he should look no farther than Robert Huth, who gifted an equaliser to Darren Bent and missed the crucial penalty kick after a desperately poor performance, but Mourinho shunned the blame game. Instead he praised Charlton’s resolve as Alan Curbishley’s side followed on from where Everton had led the way, showing that with organisation, mental strength and a little dose of luck the champions are mortal after all. For the last 10 minutes of extra time in particular, the visiting team’s spirit was summoned from the trenches as, with Talal El Karkouri hamstrung, they held on valiantly with ten men.

“I went to give congratulations to Charlton as they won, but I believe we were the best team,” Mourinho said. “We had chances to win in the 90 minutes and during extra time. They were lucky but defended well and fought all the time.

“Out of the four competitions this is the least important but that’s not why we lost. The first goal was a mistake and the penalty was a mistake, but human beings make mistakes. I’m sad but not disappointed.”

Huth’s penalty miss, which was saved by Stephan Andersen, the goalkeeper, before Charlton went on to score five out of five with Bryan Hughes converting the crucial one, was not his only mistake on a horrendous evening, but Mourinho leapt to his defence. There were anguished looks among Chelsea fans when the towering defender stepped up to take the home side’s second penalty, but such a meticulous manager as Mourinho does not improvise. The 21-year-old had drilled eight out of eight in training on Tuesday but lost his nerve at the crucial moment.

“It was a mistake by Robert but with penalties anything can happen,” Mourinho said. “I have no complaints from my players. It’s not one of those days when you go into the dressing-room and want to kill half a dozen.

“We practised penalties and in the last few days have practised penalties a dozen times. In eight penalties Robert scored eight out of eight against three different goalkeepers. I’m sad to be out of the competition but have no complaints against my players or against myself. Robert is a good player and I trust him.”

Curbishley also had problems recruiting penalty takers after Dennis Rommedahl and Danny Murphy had been substituted, but those pressed into service did their manager proud.

“It was a struggle to get five players to take penalties as some of our takers had come off,” Curbishley said. “Two of them were coerced but we managed to do it. We’ve shown that Chelsea were human but they knew that anyway.”

The rest of the Barclays Premiership will also take heart at Chelsea’s first home reverse since a 2-1 defeat to Arsenal in February 2001, although those expecting an imminent collapse in the league are likely to be disappointed. After John Terry had given Chelsea the lead with a 41st-minute header it looked like being service as usual but Charlton showed great courage to strike back immediately, Huth making a hash of a back-header to Carlo Cudicini to present Darren Bent with his ninth goal of the season.

Huth by name, hoof by nature.

Chelsea dominated much of the second half, with the introduction of Frank Lampard, a substitute, after an hour giving them extra impetus, but the visiting team hung on valiantly. Perhaps Charlton deserve to be second in the table after all.

CHELSEA (4-3-3): C Cudicini — P Ferreira, J Terry, R Huth, W Bridge (sub: F Lampard, 60min) — Gérémi, M Essien, E Gudjohnsen — S Wright-Phillips (sub: J Cole, 60), H Crespo (sub: D Drogba, 83), A Robben. Substitutes not used: P Cech, L Diarra. Booked: Essien, Gérémi, Terry, Drogba.

CHARLTON ATHLETIC (4-5-1): S Andersen — L Young, T El Karkouri, H Hreidarsson, C Powell — D Rommedahl (sub: J Thomas, 65), M Holland, D Murphy (sub: R Kishishev, 82), B Hughes, D Ambrose (sub: J Bothroyd, 72) — D Bent. Substitutes not used: D Kiely, J Spector. Booked: Hughes.

Referee: A Wiley.