CHELSEA could be without striker Samuel Eto’o for Sunday’s Premier League clash with Saints at Stamford Bridge.

He was taken off on a stretcher in the first half of last night’s 1-0 Champions League qualifying group loss in Basle and faces a scan to determine the full extent of his leg injury.

The defeat left Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho “disappointed” and he claimed most o his players were tired.

“I want to praise Basle,” he said.

“They won because we were sleeping in the last minutes, but they won also because they were the best team and they deserved to win.”

Chelsea, who failed to muster a meaningful shot during the 90 minutes, were “sleeping” because they were tired.

He added: “If they weren't sleeping, how could that ball go in? When you are tired you sleep. When you are tired you think slow. When you are tired you react late.

“We had in the last 20, 25 minutes situations in Basle's box where even there we thought slow, we react slow. We had situations to score, bad control, not the immediate shot, no sharpness. The team was tired.

“So when the team was tired it can happen that you make defensive mistakes, the attacking mistakes, the goal that normally never goes in.

“It was a bonus for Basle and Basle deserve the bonus."

It was a performance far removed from the display in the 3-0 win at West Ham on Saturday.

“Maybe I should've made more changes from the game on Saturday," the Portuguese added.

“When the players play so well it's a big temptation to keep the team, keep the players, give them more confidence. (But) I could see many signs of fatigue."

Only Willian, the solitary change from the Upton Park clash, was not fatigued according to the Blues boss.

Mourinho added: “He didn't play a fantastic match, but Willian was different to the others. He was sharper, he was faster, he was pressing, he was running.

“We had players that were not there. They weren't there because they were tired.”

Though Chelsea have now qualified from their group, they will need to beat Steaua in their last game in order to win the group.

Mourinho had, therefore, hoped for a victory last night which would have rendered the result in the Steaua match irrelevant - giving the Blues eight, rather than nine, competitive fixtures in December.

With that scenario failing to materialise, he must carefully consider how best to utilise his squad beginning with Sunday's home Premier League clash with Saints.

Mourinho added: "It's not a question of punishment, it's a question of using the squad and the options we have and to make changes when we have so many consecutive matches.”