It’s Groundhog Day... but will boss do a Mourinho?

FLASHBACK to two years ago on the opening day and Jose Mourinho’s champions were reduced to 10 men and held 2-2 at home by unfancied Swansea.

Just like Gary Cahill (below) yesterday, Thibaut Courtois got his marching orders back then, and the suspicion all was not well with Mourinho was confirmed when he angrily, and bizarrely, confronted club doctor Eva Carneiro as she came off the pitch after treating Eden Hazard.

There was no such nonsense from Antonio Conte yesterday, but he must be regretting his comment last month when he said ‘wants to avoid a Mourinho season’, referring to the 2015 meltdown.

BOARD GAMES

MOURINHO had been unhappy with Petr Cech’s free transfer to Arsenal that summer and wanted to strengthen in a number of positions.

He made his feelings known to the board, much as Conte has this summer. The Italian was doing it again yesterday with his line-up, favouring Michy Batshuayi in attack to the £65 million new boy Alvaro Morata.

Conte also started Jeremie Boga, 20, and placed 19-year-old Kyle Scott, Charly Musonda, 20, and Andreas Christensen, 21, on the bench.

BOOKIES FAVOURITE

CHELSEA picked up just 11 points from their first 12 league games in the season before last and Mourinho departed in December.

Bookmakers, with one eye on making headlines, have Conte as 7-2 favourite to follow Mourinho’s lead and get the sack the season after winning the title at Chelsea. To be fair to the bookies, there is a trend developing, with Leicester’s Claudio Ranieri suffering the same fate last season.

HISTORY BOYS?

MANCHESTER UNITED are the only side to lose their first Premier League game of a season and still go on to win the title. They’ve done it three times, in fact, in 1992-93, 1995-96 and 2012-13.

AWAY DAY BLUES

TO WIN away on day one is something special given the context of last season. Burnley didn’t win away from Turf Moor until a 2-0 victory at Crystal Palace on April 29 — that’s a wait of 259