BATTERED AT THE BRIDGE
‘Garbage’ defence leaves Mourinho’s United off the pace
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 yesterday.
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 goal.
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.
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.
With the score at 4-0, the shots on target stats had stood at 4-4. That told us that Chelsea had been far too good in the 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.
Mourinho knows this too. That is why he sent his team out to play in the same manner as they did in drawing 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 own shell.
At United they say Mourinho seems subdued. They say they are working with Mourinho-lite and his team are now threatening to reflect that. If a manager does not believe, how can his players?
Yesterday, Mourinho’s return to the place where we first felt we knew him began quietly, and his team’s football 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.
Mourinho described the opening minute of the game as ‘an incredible mistake and I mean incredible in capitals’. He was right.
A hoof from Chelsea left-back Marcos Alonso saw David De Gea advance injudiciously from his penalty area, and Pedro was able to ease past the United goalkeeper and roll the ball into the net.
At times, it looked easier to score than not against a United defence that 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 challenge on Marouane Fellaini, but only received 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.
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 and Marcus Rashford was released to play up front with Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Again United enjoyed some territory but the door was always open for a Chelsea team playing swift attacking football. Hazard warned United once as his shot rebounded from a defender’s leg before, in the 61st minute, he stood up Smalling and curled the ball in to the far corner with a sumptuous finish. United collapsed in a heap again ten 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 chastising of Conte was unnecessary and summed up his day. He now heads into a derby with Manchester City on Wednesday with United’s season at a critical point.
For all their limitations, United are only six points off the top of the Premier League. It is not exactly all over. 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 whatsoever.
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 incredibly quickly if this battering at the Bridge is to stand out as his season’s low point by the start of winter.