Jose Mourinho refused to say whether captain John Terry would be restored to Chelsea’s starting XI for Saturday’s Barclays Premier League clash with Southampton at Stamford Bridge.

Striker Diego Costa completes his three-match suspension, so Loic Remy and Radamel Falcao could start up front, although neither travelled to Porto for Tuesday night’s Champions League loss. Oscar also stayed behind after not being selected, while goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois is out until December following knee surgery.

Mourinho says he is in the midst of the worst period of his trophy-laden career. The Premier League champions have two wins from seven games this term and followed up last Saturday’s draw at Newcastle with a midweek Champions League loss at Porto.

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“I define (this) as the worst period of my career, with the worst results in my career,” said Mourinho, whose side host Southampton this weekend.

“I get it as a fantastic experience – an experience that I don’t want to repeat. I want to finish tomorrow and win some matches again.

“I think it comes too late, to come after 15 years is too late, but it’s something that is helping me to be better, a great negative experience.”

Mourinho insists it is not the most challenging period, but the worst in terms of results.

He said: “I had a big challenge all the time. It’s the worst results. I’ve never lost so many matches. That’s a fact.”

Ronald Koeman expects Chelsea to emerge from their slump soon, but hopes it will not be until after Southampton’s visit. The Saints boss said:

“Normally they will fight to win titles because it’s not like that one year they have really the best team and the next year is not like that.

“Everybody can have a difficult start to the season.

“Maybe defensively they lost a little bit. If you watch the goals that they let in against them, that’s a big difference from last year in that aspect.

“Maybe they lost a little bit but they are still very strong.

“We know maybe the start of the season is not what everybody expected of Chelsea.

“They were the strongest team last year but, okay, it doesn’t say anything about the situation because they have the qualities, they have the players to give a good reaction.

“Finally they will go up in the table.”

Chelsea were marching towards the title when Southampton visited last season and were held to a 1-1 draw thanks to Dusan Tadic’s penalty. And Koeman is confident his side can pick up another positive result in west London.

“That feeling we had already last year,” the Dutchman added at his pre-match press conference.

“We know what we can expect, we can have a good result if we play on our level because two times we had a draw against them last year.

“That belief that we had last year, we have to show again.”

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Koeman could add Jordy Clasie to the squad at Stamford Bridge.

The Holland midfielder has yet to feature in the Premier League for Saints due to an ankle injury, but he has trained this week and is in contention.

Koeman will otherwise choose from the same squad which beat Swansea 3-1 at St Mary’s last weekend.