CHELSEA CELEBRATES
The really painful news for Jose Mourinho and Manchester
United is that their opponents didn't have to be that good to embarrass them.
Antonio Conte's team are improving and showing some of the
ruthless, clinical football that once characterised Chelsea under the bloke
sitting in the away dug-out on Sunday.
But Chelsea will play better than this and win by less. That
is why this is not necessarily their story. No, this was an afternoon that told
us more about Mourinho and United and two images of this desperately humbling
day summed it all up.
The first came after N'Golo Kante had left Chris Smalling on
the seat of his pants to score Chelsea's fourth.
On the touchline, as Conte bounded around like a schoolboy
on the last day of term, Mourinho looked as though he was about to make one of
those 'chin up' gestures he made famous during his time at Stamford Bridge. It
turned out he was merely wiping water from his mouth. It was just as well. It
was far too late for defiant gestures that his players could not match.
Then, at full time, Mourinho pulled Conte close to deliver a
lecture. It did not look pleasant, it looked desperate. At last some emotional
energy from somebody associated with United, but, as had been the case with
their defending, it all seemed rather too little and too late.
With the score at 4-0, the shots on target stats had
actually stood at 4-4. That told us a few things. It told us that Chelsea had
notswarmed all over United like bees, peppering shots towards David de Gea's
goal.
It just told us that they had been far too good in the one
area that really mattered and strengthened the theory that this United team are
not equipped to survive when dragged into a bout of punch and
counter-punch.
HAZARD
Deep down, Mourinho knows this too. That is why he sent his
team out to play in the same manner as they did in drawing creditably at
Liverpool a week ago. The Portuguese has always been a pragmatist but the
limitations of this current team are drawing him deeper and deeper into his
shell.
At United, they say Mourinho seems subdued. Not just in
public, but in private. The charismatic, confident coach they hired has arrived
in body only.
They say they are working with Mourinho-lite and his team
are threatening to reflect that. If a manager does not believe, how can his
players?
On Sunday, Mourinho's return to the place where we first
felt we knew him began quietly — a quick hug for John Terry and one for a
groundsman — and in terms of his team's football it continued in that vein.
Chelsea would have been mugs had they not taken advantage
and once their Spanish forward Pedro gave them the lead within 30 seconds, the
water was only flowing one way.
United took some stick for their performance at Anfield.
That was wrong as they got a point.
Here, the plan was almost identical — in terms of personnel
and formation — but it was blown apart before a red shirt had even sniffed the
ball, and when that happens the criticism that comes your way will bury you.
Mourinho described the opening minute of the game as 'an incredible mistake and
I mean incredible in capitals'.
CAHILL AND COSTA
He was right, too. A diagonal hoof upfield from Chelsea left
back Marcos Alonso saw Smalling and Daley Blind hesitate and as De Gea advanced
injudiciously from his penalty area, Pedro was able to ease past the United
goalkeeper and roll the ball into the empty net.
It was the former Barcelona forward's first shot on target
all season. Somehow that seemed appropriate in terms of what followed. At
times, it looked easier to score than not against a United defence Gary Neville
described on television as 'garbage'.
There was one moment in the first half that could have
changed the direction of the game. David Luiz should have been sent off for a
studs-up challenge on Marouane Fellaini and it was strange that referee Martin
Atkinson didn't do more than show the Brazilian a yellow card.
That apart, the story was one of periods of United
possession undermined by a complete lack of control whenever they didn't have
the ball.
The second goal was a poor one to concede, too, as Gary
Cahill crashed home from a corner after Ander Herrera failed to control in the
21st minute. At the other end, Thibaut Courtois saved from Herrera and from
Jesse Lingard.
PEDRO
United's threat was not invisible but at times in football
some things just seem inevitable, and so it was here. Mourinho made changes at
half-time as Juan Mata replaced Fellaini, Marcus Rashford was released to play
up front with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and United moved to something akin to 4-1-3-2.
Again United enjoyed some territory but the back door was
open for a Chelsea team playing swift attacking football with which their
opponents' forwards are currently not familiar.
Hazard warned United once as his scamper and shot rebounded
from a defender's leg before, in the 61st minute, he ran off Mata's shoulder on
to a pass from Nemanja Matic, stood up Smalling and curled the ball round him
into the far corner with his right instep. It was a sumptuous finish but the
devil was in the detail. Once Mata didn't track Hazard, the odds were with the
Belgian.
United collapsed in a heap again 10 minutes later when Kante
fooled Smalling on the way to scoring his first Chelsea goal and the fourth of
his team's stellar day.
Mourinho's subsequent chastising of Conte was unnecessary
and summed up his day. Mourinho now heads into a Manchester derby on Wednesday
with his team's season at a critical point already. For all their limitations,
United are only six points off the top of the Premier League.
Currently, though, Mourinho has issues to solve relating to
Luke Shaw and Henrikh Mkhitaryan — who he refuses to select — and Ibrahimovic
and Paul Pogba, from whom he is getting nothing at all.
United managers should always look up and not down, but
Mourinho will know how close the likes of Watford, Southampton and Bournemouth
are in his team's rear view mirror.
Improvement must arrive very quickly indeed if this
battering at the Bridge is to stand out as his season's low point by the start
of winter.
He now heads in to a Manchester derby against City on
Wednesday with his team's season at a critical point already.
For all their limitations, United are only six points off
the top of the Premier League. Currently, though, Mourinho has issues to solve
relating to Luke Shaw and Henrikh Mkhitaryan – who he refuses to select – and
Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba, from whom he is currently getting nothing at all.
United managers should always look up and not down but
Mourinho will know how close the likes of Watford, Southampton and Bournemouth
are in his team's rear view mirror. Improvement must arrive very quickly indeed
if this Battering at the Bridge is to stand out as his season's low point by
the start of winter.
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