Given how the media usually lionise the way in which Jose Mourinho can be guaranteed to give them great screen grabs and headlines, and stories packed with quotable phrases to fill the back pages, it may seem odd to read that his post-match news conferences have, of late, become strangely predictable.
Or rather, they had. Again and again his Chelsea side would win and again and again he would insist they were not the Premier League title favourites, even at one point claiming that Manchester City – at the time nine points behind with three games in hand – were in a stronger position because of their superior goal difference.
It is a nonsense that should be placed alongside the “little horse” metaphor of earlier in the season.
Chelsea are not a poor club, the team is not inexperienced and if Mourinho is due patience it is because he has made substantial changes to the style of play.
To reshape the team as quickly as he has, while taking them to the top of the table and into the last eight of the Uefa Champions League, is a fine achievement, but it is not the plucky underdog story he has been making it out to be.
Yet there is something strange about Chelsea. On several occasions this season, just as they look to have found their rhythm, they drop unexpected points.
There has been a sense about them for a while that they will just rumble on, squeezing the life out of the title race with relentless results if not overly thrilling performances.
In the 16 games of the season before the goalless draw at Arsenal on December 23, Chelsea scored 32 and conceded 18, averaging 2.06 points per game.
In the 14 from that draw onwards they have scored 24 and conceded just five, averaging 2.36 points per game.
Then, just as the charge has seemed inevitable, there has come a blip: 3-0 against Southampton, 2-0 against Hull City, 3-1 against Manchester United – then a 0-0 draw at home to West Ham United, a result that loosens the grip. A win at Manchester City and at home to Newcastle United, and then a draw at West Bromwich Albion.
Three more wins, all professional rather than thrilling, and then defeat at Aston Villa.
Perhaps Mourinho does have a point and there is a flaw in this Chelsea, although the issue seems less about inexperience than the lack of a top-class striker, for all Samuel Eto’o has contributed some key goals at home this season.
Saturday’s defeat to Aston Villa, though, showed up an unexpected issue: a lack of discipline.
Willian could feel unfortunate to have collected a second yellow card, but Ramires’s lunge on Karim El Ahmadi was appalling and means he will miss three games at a key point of the season.
Willian’s one-game ban comes today. That could diminish Chelsea’s effectiveness on the break against Arsenal.
Mourinho’s dismissal for entering the pitch seemed more designed to deflect attention from his side’s shortcomings than a genuine loss of control but still added to the general sense of chaos.
What the hoohah at Villa Park has also done is deflect the focus from the fact that even having dropped points so that City would be three points ahead of them should they win all their games in hand, Chelsea have, by far, the easiest run-in on paper of any of the four championship contenders.
After Arsenal they have only one more game against a team on the top half of the table – away to Liverpool in May.
City still have to play United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Everton. Arsenal have to face City and Everton, and Liverpool, as well as those home games against Chelsea and City, must play Tottenham Hotspur.
Whatever Mourinho claims, Chelsea are still favourites.
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