Matic — an ideal signing

LONDON. — Six months into his first season back at Chelsea, José Mourinho had identified three key areas in which his team were deficient.

Hindsight suggests it was that recognition that led, at the beginning of February 2014, to his “little horses” Press conference in which he denied Chelsea were title contenders despite having pulled to within two points of the top with a 1-0 win at Manchester City.

He was lacking a genuine goalscorer and a creative presence in midfield, problems resolved by the signings that summer of Diego Costa and Cesc Fàbregas, but he had already moved in January to plug the other gap by bringing Nemanja Matic back from Benfica.

Chelsea made 10 signings in 2014 but it was those three who were the most important, something that was obvious from the moment Chelsea beat Burnley in their opening game of the season. Each of the three major deficiencies the previous season had been dealt with and it is only a slight exaggeration to say that from that moment Chelsea’s title win was a procession.

Mourinho has made a habit of such clinical changes after a season at a club. Since he joined Porto in 2002, he has always won the league in his second season — at Porto, at Chelsea, at Internazionale and Real Madrid, and at Chelsea again — as though that is the happy midpoint when he has had time to organise his team but not quite had time to exhaust them with his constant political manoeuvring. — The Guardian.