Finally, Chelsea are beaten but does it matter? It’s only the League Cup

League Cup holders Chelsea lost their unbeaten home record under Jose Mourinho in a third round tie against Charlton Athletic but their Port...

League Cup holders Chelsea lost their unbeaten home record under Jose Mourinho in a third round tie against Charlton Athletic but their Portuguese manager believes the run remains intact.

The match on Wednesday was decided in a penalty shootoutafter a 1-1 draw at the end of extra time with Charlton winning 5-4. Chelsea’s German defender Robert Huth was the only player to fail from the spot having earlier gifted Charlton an equaliser.

‘‘We didn’t lose the game’’, Mourinho told ITV Sport. ‘‘Their goal was a big mistake but the boy (Huth) is a very good player and I trust him. He will have to learn from his mistakes.’’

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The defeat ended Mourinho’s unblemished record at Stamford Bridge after 15 months and 37 games and the fact that the loss came by the narrowest of margins will be no consolation to a manager who took great pride in seeing his team lift the trophy last season.

‘‘We know out of the four competitions it is the one with less importance if you can say that’’, Mourinho said. ‘‘But it wasn’t because of that we lost. We respect the competition. We won it last year and we wanted to win it again this year.’’

Elsewhere, a virtual Manchester United reserve side, with five debutants, eased past fourth division Barnet 4-1 — youngsters Guiseppe Rossi and Sylvain Ebanks-Blake among the scorers — to join Charlton in the next round, while there were also wins for Premier League clubs Newcastle United, Middlesbrough, Birmingham City and Bolton Wanderers.