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Home » Ghanaian Chronicle » Mon 24th Oct, 2016 » Mourinho endures miserable Stamford Bridge return

Mourinho endures miserable Stamford Bridge return

Ghanaian Chronicle

Mon 24th Oct, 2016 19:33

At one point it looked as though Jose Mourinho was about to give one of his ‘chin up’ gestures to his players. It turned out the Manchester United manager was merely wiping water from his face. Just as well, as by then the game was up. Chelsea had just scored their fourth goal, their manager […]

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At one point it looked as though Jose Mourinho was about to give one of his ‘chin up’ gestures to his players. It turned out the Manchester United manager was merely wiping water from his face.

Just as well, as by then the game was up. Chelsea had just scored their fourth goal, their manager Antonio Conte was leaping around his technical area like a school boy on Christmas day and some United fans were beginning to check train timetables north.

If last Monday’s draw at Anfield was an example of what happens when a plan comes together, here was the opposite for Mourinho and his United team. If you set out to stifle the game and concede a goal after 29 seconds then this is what can happen.

In truth, all looked lost for United the moment Pedro exploited shambolic United defending to score that first goal.

They currently don’t look like a team that is capable of going punch and counter punch with an opponent. So it turned out as Chelsea went on to score three more times to record their biggest win in any game against United since a 5-0 win here in October 1999.

That was a treble-winning United team that was vanquished that day. This version is not even an imitation of that, not at the moment anyway.

Here they conceded another poor goal – Gary Cahill the scorer – before half-time and two more in the second period.

Both were expertly taken by Eden Hazard and N’Golo Kante but both featured defending that former United captain Gary Neville described as ‘garbage’ on TV.

We should not overlook Chelsea’s football here. Conte’s team have taken a while to find their stride this season but they were bright and purposeful and aggressive on the day Stamford Bridge marked 20 years since the death of vice-chairman Matthew Harding.

Nevertheless, the fact is that Chelsea did not have to play that well to beat United. That should encourage Chelsea as they can go home on Sunday night and wonder what kind of damage they can inflict when they do hit their straps.

Mourinho’s United were simply too supine. The man himself looked short of ideas and charisma from the moment he sauntered to the end of the tunnel 15 minutes before kick-off.

Towards the end of his days at Chelsea, his team stopped playing in his image. United, for their part, have never once looked like that and here they were dreadful.

The afternoon was a particularly bad one for England defender Chris Smalling. He was one of United’s better players under Louis van Gaal but has regressed this season. It would be wrong to pick him out, however, as he was not alone.

Once again, this is a Premier League that lacks an outstanding team, so far at least. As such United remain within shooting distance of the top four. But that makes it worse in some ways. They may be able to see the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool up ahead but they can also hear Southampton, Watford and Bournemouth behind them.

Mourinho may ask why David Luiz was not sent off for a first half studs-up challenge on Marouane Fellaini. It was a dreadful tackle. United were already two down by that time, though. They already looked rather beaten.

Afterwards there was what seemed to be a lecture in the ear of Conte from the United manager. Heaven knows what about.

This was a dreadful 90 minutes for Mourinho and one that had started with no change from Monday’s tactics, no variation on the pragmatic theme.

The Wayne Rooney debate ended as soon as the United captain didn’t get on the train from Manchester on Saturday, a muscle strain was the official explanation, so once again Mourinho asked Ander Herrera and Fellaini to screen his back four with Paul Pogba operating, in theory at least, further up behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic.