Chelsea test a bridge too far for troubled Jose Mourinho
To his left, Antonio Conte, having kicked every ball of the match, endlessly organising and cajoling his players, turned to the crowd and gestured for them to sing up in appreciation of the home side’s performance.
Mourinho, meanwhile, stood completely still, weight on his left leg, looking like a man who had only just missed a west London Tube; fairly annoyed by the inconvenience but safe in the knowledge that another will be along shortly.
Inside, you would assume, the four-goal rout at the hands of his former employers would have inflicted some of the worst pain he has felt in his career as a football manager. But there he stood, looking basically nonplussed by the whole affair.
It was exactly how United had played from the start. No verve, no purpose, no idea. It was why Pedro was allowed to stroke his side in front after just 30 seconds and why N’Golo Kante was allowed to waltz through the United defence to score the fourth 69 minutes later.
So it was perhaps unsurprising when Mourinho simply blamed defensive errors for the defeat and bizarrely insisted that the ‘globality’ of the performance was, in fact, OK.
He said: “When we speak about performance, we speak more about the globality.
“If we could delete the defensive mistakes, then the globality was good. But defensive mistakes are very important. When my teams have perfection in their defensive performances, you say that is not important but the reality is that it is.
“We made an incredible defensive mistake — incredible in capitals — in the first minute and then the game is different.
“Then the globality of the performance is good control, good football, good positions, and chances.”
This was not Mourinho’s first visit to the away dug-out at Stamford Bridge, having steered his Inter Milan to a hard-fought 1-0 victory here back in 2010.
That was a classic Mourinho performance, one which the Chelsea fans had grown accustomed to, and one which they might have expected at Stamford Bridge yesterday.
However, after emerging to a muted reception, any plans of an attritional evening were dashed within just 30 seconds.
There looked little danger when left wing-back Marcos Alonso lifted a hopeful pass forward but, when Chris Smalling allowed the ball to drift beyond him, Pedro scurried in behind before rounding David De Gea and tucking the ball into the empty net.
They might have equalised, however, after eight minutes when Antonio Valencia stood a cross up to the back post where Zlatan Ibrahimovic rose above Cesar Azpilicueta but nodded over the bar.
That was about as good as it got for the visitors who fell further behind after another defensive error. This time United failed to deal with Eden Hazard’s 21st-minute corner, which bounced off the stationary Ander Herrera before dropping kindly for Gary Cahill. Chelsea’s stand-in captain could barely believe his luck, slamming the ball into the roof of the net via Daley Blind’s thigh to make it 2-0.
Chants of ‘You’re not special anymore’ rung around Stamford Bridge and it was difficult to argue. What was harder, however, was seeing a way back for the visitors, who had failed to beat Chelsea in their previous 10 attempts.
Costa had the ball in the net a minute after the restart but it was disallowed for offside as Chelsea continued to look the more threatening. And they only had to wait until the 62nd minute for their third as Hazard started and finished a simple three-man move to make it 3-0.
It got worse for the visitors and their beleaguered captain Smalling who was made to look stupid by Kante, who latched onto a cute flick from Pedro before stepping inside the centre-back and rolling the ball beyond De Gea.
“Jose Mourinho,” sung the home crowd, who were probably as stunned as him by how the game had turned out. It took the self-proclaimed Special One 18 months and 64 matches to lose three Premier League fixtures in charge of Chelsea yet here he was, just 80 days after his first game in charge, sent to his third defeat in nine Premier League fixtures.
“I told the players at half-time that we have to chase the result in a situation where Chelsea are very comfortable,” Mourinho added afterwards. “We put ourselves in a situation where we gave them the game they want.
“The global performance has to be analysed together with the defensive mistakes.”
Conte, for his part, chose not to revel in the victory — or reveal what was said by Mourinho in a final-whistle exchange which appeared frosty.
“I think that the private conversation must remain private,” Conte said. “What happened on the pitch is the most important thing.
“But now we must continue because Manchester United, for me, is the past.”
Courtois 7; Azpilicueta 7, Cahill 7, Luiz 7; Moses 7, Pedro 7 (71 Chalobah 6), Kante 8, Matic 7, Alonso 7; Hazard 8 (77 Willian 6), Costa 7 (78 Batshuayi 6).
Begovic, Oscar, Willian, Terry, Aina
De Gea 6; Valencia 6, Smalling 3, Bailly 5 (52 Rojo 6), Blind 6; Fellaini 5 (46, Mata 7), Herrera 6; Lingard 5 (65 Martial 5), Pogba 6, Rashford 6; Ibrahimovic 5.
Romero, Carrick, Young, Darmian
Martin Atkinson 7
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
