jokes cracked in Spain after Mourinho poor start at Chelsea

Real Madrid fans had a little sympathy for their former manager Jose Mourinho's poor start of the season. His ardent followers in the Spanish capital were too busy celebrating Real's 6-1 away win over Galatasaray on Tuesday to defend him and his critics were not going to pass up the opportunity to laugh at Chelsea's home defeat to Basel.

"How long before he drops Petr Cech" and "he's nothing without Aitor Karanka" were representative of the humour inspired by such an unexpected capitulation. The jokes were references to Mourinho dropping Iker Casillas at Madrid and his tendency to send out assistant Karanka when he did not feel like talking to the press – although in fairness to the Portuguese he always showed if Real had failed to win.