Jose Mourinho believes Man City cashed in on their midweek break to get the better of Chelsea in today's FA Cup tie.

While the Blues were in action at West Brom on Tuesday, Man City's home game against Sunderland was postponed because of the weather. The Chelsea boss says that was significant.

“I think today was also clear that there was a difference of freshness between the teams,” Mourinho said.

“One team played two days ago, another team last week and had one week without competitive football and it was easy to see the difference.

“What [Nemanja] Matic was two weeks ago and what he was today, is just an example.”

In spite of his side's failure to repeat their league win at the Etihad 12 days ago, Mourinho had no real complaints.

“I don't say my team failed. City played much better than us and deserved much more than us to win,” he said. “When the best team wins, I think football is in peace.

“Two weeks ago the best team won and today the best team won, so for me, that's simple and gives more credit to my players for what they did two weeks ago.

“But today is very simple to analyse. They were the best team, they won. They deserved to win.

“Even with a perfect referee would Chelsea win, no? The second goal was offside but they would 1-0 because we were never close to scoring or being dominant or bring scare to the game.”