Chelsea continued their winning ways in the Premier League, following a hard-fought 2-1 win over Crystal palace at Selhurt Park.
Strikes from Oscar and Cesc Fabregas proved enough for the Blues to take all three points from the match as the Eagles were only able to get a late consolation through Frasier Campbell.
The game started with Chelsea breaking the deadlock in the 6th minute through a brilliant free-kick from Oscar, following Damien Delaney's clumsy foul on Willian around the edge of the box.
The hosts tried to give an immediate response through Campbell but the striker failed to hit the target on two occasions, after doing brilliantly to get past the Chelsea defence.
The Blues were reduced to 10 men in the 40th minute after Cesar Azpilicueta was shown a red card for his rash two-footed tackle on Mile Jedinak. Campbell and Fabregas were also booked for arguing with each other following the sending off.
But soon the tie became a 10-men each affair after Delaney, who was already on a yellow card, was shown a second yellow, following his foul on Loic Remy.
Chelsea doubled their lead in the 51st minute through Fabregas, who found the net following some excellent one-touch passing between himself, Oscar and Eden Hazard.
Hazard nearly extended the Blues' lead in the 74th minute as he looked to convert Fabregas' low cross but a brilliant last-ditch tackle from former Liverpool man Martin Kelly prevented the Belgian from getting the effort away.
Finally, Palace were able to get a goal in the 90th minute through Campbell, who slid the ball in from close range, following some good work from on-loan winger Wilfried Zaha.
Mourinho was pleased with Chelsea's win over Palace, insisting that his side have evolved and become a much better team this season.
"We are a better team than last season. There was a clear evolution in our team," Mourinho told Chelsea's official website after the match.
"The evolution is not just based on the fact that we bought two fantastic players [Fabregas and Costa], because today one of them [Costa] was not playing and the team was fantastic the same way. Our evolution was a team evolution and I'm really pleased with that."
