Chelsea’s ton points to another record year

JOSE MOURINHO isn’t kidding when he says Chelsea are good and getting better.

His side’s 2-0 victory over Birmingham on Saturday gave a neat finish to 2005 for the London club, as it pushed the champions over the 100-point total for a calendar year.

The three points secured by goals from Hernan Crespo and Arjen Robben mean that Chelsea banked an impressive 101 points in the Premiership last year.

Ominously for other clubs, that augurs well for the Blues’ future in the competition. A couple of other clubs have made it to three figures with their calendar-year points tallies, and in both cases it kick-started an unprecedented period of superiority which lasted several years.

In 1992 Leeds United took the title to Yorkshire, but during the following calendar year a Lancashire club amassed 102 points between January and December. Manchester United won the title in 1993 and proceeded to retain it at a canter in the 1993-4 season.

After that season United dominated the Premiership, picking up six titles along the way, not to mention the famous treble in 1999. Though not the force they were, despite their off-field problems, United are the side nearest Chelsea in the Premiership.

The omens get even more worrying the further back you go. When Liverpool faced January 1982 they had a paltry 24 points on the board, but they stormed through to win the old First Division with an impressive 87-point total.

They began the following season in similar style, storming to a six-point lead (over Nottingham Forest) by the end of December and a total of 44 points.

That means a grand total of 107 points garnered in the calendar year 1982. As an indicator of future performance it didn’t lie - Liverpool won another four First Division titles between then and 1990.

Back in the present, Mourinho was unsurprisingly bullish after Chelsea put Birmingham to the sword over the weekend. “One hundred and one points for the Premiership in 2005 is an unbelievable record,” he said. “No defeats at home and a lot of victories. This half of the season is better than last season and so 2005 has been an unbelievable year for Chelsea.”

It’s not just a matter of artificial time frames either. Remember that Manchester United run of 1993? It was the foundation for their 94-point total for the 1993-4 Premiership title, a record that stood until ... last year, when Chelsea totalled 94 points.

Who’s to say 2005-6 won’t be as good? If the past is anything to go by, 2007 may be pretty special as well.