A re-make just as good as original

Chelsea 3 Aston Villa 0

Chelsea, who go to Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League tomorrow for their next adventure, produced the kind of efficient, pragmatic and yet skilful performance reminiscent of Mourinho’s first spell in charge and which suggested his latest re-modelling of a team that under-achieved last season, and which looked to be reaching the end of the road under previous managers, is now almost complete.

There was absolutely no mistaking the 2014-15 model is a Mourinho team. All the signs were there: the efficiency of the performance and the tactics, the ruthlessness in attack (even if they should, perhaps, have scored more in the first half), the body language that oozed self confidence, that knack of doing just enough – and not using an ounce of energy more – to win a game with no fuss and no scares.