The Blues - who made the 120-mile journey to Norfolk by plane on Saturday - had got off to a flying start when Oscar put the visitors into a fourth-minute lead after Demba Ba's lay-off from a Frank Lampard through ball.
However, instead of pressing on to take command of the game, Chelsea failed to make the most of their positive opening as Norwich, fighting for points at the other end of the table, responded after the break, and when Ba scuffed his shot in front of an empty net, the hosts were level through Anthony Pilkington, who earlier might have earned a penalty after being tripped by Ramires.
After the introduction of Eden Hazard and Willian, Norwich saw all of their hard work undone when a poor back-header was seized on by the Belgian, who squeezed the ball under England goalkeeper John Ruddy before the Brazilian midfielder cracked in a superb angled drive to finally put the result beyond doubt.
Mourinho said: "During the game I am not nervous. I have feelings. I smell things, and when that easy goal (from Ba) was missed, I had a smell that they would score a goal.
"That is why I had Eden warming up at 1-0 because I smelled that.
"We could have won or lost it at 1-1 because we, at that moment, didn't want a point.
"If they had scored a second goal, we would probably lose, but we are trying to be top.
"After a point at Spurs, a point here would have been a bad result for us, so we tried to win it."
Mourinho felt he had to do something to try to turn the game back in his side's favour, with Norwich dominating for long spells in the second half.
Source: PA
Source: PA