For all of Jose Mourinho’s brilliance at the highest level of football management, he receives his fair share of critics directed mainly at how his teams go about playing their football. It is nonsense. Mourinho has always loved the mind-games, the wars of words and spewing out the usual controversial drivel to the media but behind the unprepossessing façade is a masterly winning mentality. Mourinho knows how to win the biggest games, he always has. Like every other human being, he has made his mistakes, most notably at Real Madrid, but one of the defining qualities of his time in management has been the proficiency in frustrating the heavyweight opponents in their own back garden. Mourinho loves the away games; he sees it as a kind of double-victory and the quintessential method of gaining a psychological edge. It is exactly this Mourinho is seeking when he takes his Chelsea side to the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
Rewind back to February, with the title race still very much in the balance, Manchester City and Chelsea do battle in the same setting as they try and hunt down Arsenal- who were setting the pace at the time. Mourinho approaches the game with pragmatism and precision. He knows a loss would leave his Chelsea side flagging five points behind and hand a massive boost to City. Mourinho does not try attack City to death as he is aware of their considerable firepower and opts for a more measured approach. He lines up a defensively minded midfield trio of Nemanja Matic, David Luiz and Ramires. Their legs, tactical discipline and tenacity helped break up the play in a match where City grew increasingly frustrated, much to Mourinho’s delight.
Chelsea defended with supreme organisation, togetherness and solidity, with every player behind the ball making important contributions in keeping City away from Cech’s goal. Matic was as good as he’s ever been in a Chelsea shirt with John Terry and Gary Cahill standing firm against City’s creative forces. In the end, City were ran off the park by a tremendously proficient unit, blown away by Chelsea’ grit and determination and to which, it left them simply bereft of ideas. It was the first time Manchester City failed to score at home in 62 matches, stretching back to 2010. It is easy to measure the scale of Mourinho’s achievement against that perspective. Along with the rain, Mourinho was pelted with chants of “you’re worse than Allardyce” regarding his supposed conservatism but at the end he looked like the consummate genius of tactics and big-game management, standing tall on the touchline as the home supporters scuffled quietly out of the stadium.
Notching up points on the road has always been a reliable facet of Mourinho’s managerial arsenal. He subjects the opponents to frustration and his teams often land a killer blow, with Ivanovic’s tremendous strike against City in February a prime example. Last season, however, it did not work out for him as Chelsea finished a disappointing third behind City and Liverpool in the title race. Mourinho lamented the lack of a prolific striker in the run-in as City and Liverpool blew them away with a flurry of goal-drenched performances.
The Portuguese’s finely-tuned tactics were, ultimately, not complimented as Chelsea failed to take advantage of several opportunities in key games which lost them points but Chelsea’ business in the transfer market suggest that lightning will not be striking twice as far as goals are concerned. Now armed with one of deadliest weapons in European football in Diego Costa, Chelsea have that talismanic target-man to spearhead the attack. Cesc Fabregas is also a player who looks as though he is right back at home in the Premier League. Costa has seven goals while Fabregas has managed six assists and with both of these players enjoying a purple patch in form, Mourinho is determined to inflict similar misery on Manuel Pellegrini and send out an emphatic statement of intent.
Perhaps Mourinho can look to Manchester City’s indifferent early-season form for a source of added inspiration. Stoke shocked the blue half of Manchester with a 1-0 victory three weeks ago and City have since failed to beat Arsenal while their confidence was further fractured by a late-goal from one of their former players as Bayern Munich bettered them 1-0 in Germany. Again, Mourinho has always had that instinct to gauge the confidence of who he is playing. An Art of War-inspired aptitude for exploiting a team’s weaknesses and City’s weakness at the moment is there self-belief. They may be Premier League champions, but every defeat in the Champions League causes concern in the players’ minds as to why they are not beating the very best. Pellegrini will undoubtedly instruct his team to play in a way which expresses their character and resilience following a European disappointment, but the time may have come again for Mourinho’s ingenuity to strike.
The risk for Chelsea is over-confidence, now that they have a productive attacking unit based upon the wizardry of Fabregas, the explosive pace of Hazard and the devastating Costa. There may be the temptation to flood City with attacks and leave Matic and co exposed. Mourinho may see fit to tell his players to play this way but the more measured, structured and efficient style that brought them three points on their last visit here definitely looks like the correct course of action. Mourinho is as adept as they come with regards to pre-match preparation, he must put this into practice once again to secure a priceless away victory for his side that will see them claim maximum points from their first five games and looking odds-on title favourites even at this early stage.