Chelsea vs Crystal Palace: Same old Jose Mourinho, same old Chelsea as Premier League title looms

Expansive football, a more relaxed attitude. At times this season Chelsea and their manager seemed to have turned over a new leaf. But with the title looming both reverted to type

Jose Mourinho back in 2004. He upset people then – and still does (Getty Images)

Taken at face value, you could be forgiven for thinking that Jose Mourinho had turned the other cheek. The Chelsea manager was asked on Friday about Arsène Wenger’s suggestion that the Portuguese didn't show enough "respect" to other managers. Mourinho wouldn’t touch it. He wagged his finger, and gestured to move on.

You might have thought this was evidence that Mourinho was finally turning the page, putting such spats behind him. Except that only a week earlier he had taken precisely the opposite approach. Before Chelsea’s 0-0 draw at the Emirates, Mourinho had initially tried to be magnanimous about his Arsenal counterpart. But then Wenger’s comments about defending being “easy” were put to the Portuguese, and he couldn’t help himself. He pointed out that defending hadn’t been so easy for Arsenal when they lost to Monaco in the Champions League (a fair point it must be said).

In some ways these two sides to their manager perfectly reflect the way Chelsea have played this season. Mourinho had established his reputation in England a decade ago by winning titles in his first two seasons. It was a masterclass in coaching but the football was usually efficient rather than aesthetic or memorable. There were signs of improvement last season and then Chelsea spent the first half of the campaign belying theirs, and Mourinho’s past, by playing brilliant, expansive football.

But as the new year came, and the prospect of winning the title came under threat, he reverted to type and locked it all down. He got the team to just dig in as quickly as he himself felt the need to get digs in.

It is, seemingly, Mourinho’s nature. It also cuts to the core of the grand theme of his second spell with Chelsea, as he stands on the brink of an eighth league title of his career. The Premier League trophy will return to Stamford Bridge if they beat Crystal Palace today, but has that necessarily involved the return of the old Mourinho?

When he first came back in June 2013, the Portuguese made a big play about how the upstart of his earlier days had gone, to be replaced by an elder statesman who would directly succeed the just-retired Alex Ferguson in that role. He specifically used the term “Godfather”, and talked about how he would also change the profile of Chelsea, both in terms of style of play and age of the team.

So far, as with his responses to both Wenger and the threat of a title challenge, it seems he’s only halfway there. There has been undeniable evolution but not quite enough to pronounce a new Mourinho.

It’s not all bad, mind. His inherent competitiveness has brought many parallels with his first title back in 2004-05. Mourinho brought on a new group who had never won anything together, bound them with a League Cup victory and will ultimately claim the title at a canter. “That’s maybe why the Capital One Cup was important for the group,” Mourinho said. “To win, it brings more.”

One difference with 2004-05, however, is that Chelsea have also done more with less. While they can’t be described as frugal when they feature a £30m striker in Diego Costa, Financial Fair Play means they haven’t been able to casually cover any squad problems with cash.

Jose Mourinho gestures from the sidelines at the Emirates (Getty Images)

Mourinho has had to be much more pragmatic in this way, as evidenced by how he moved on valuable players like Andre Schurrle to bring in versatile ones in Juan Cuadrado. It is all the more pointed that he initially played purer football despite that. He cut loose despite cutting his cloth to measure. That is why he thinks this will be a “special” title.

“It’s a great feeling because, in this moment, we are not any more the rich club. We are a top club but a club that lives with the work everyone does, so it means a lot. Lots of kids, first title for them, people that don’t know what it is to be champions, so I want this one a lot. I think, in the moment we clinch the title, I will be more happy for them than myself.”

It is also why Mourinho has occasionally been unhappy with criticism for the team’s on-pitch pragmatism. He fairly insists that the more cautious recent approach has come because of injuries, but there is a justifiable question as to why it went so extreme so quickly for so long.

It did admittedly bring brilliant results, with Chelsea claiming 16 points from the last available 18 to so definitively dismiss all challenges. That is how you lock down a title. That is the classic winner’s mentality that must never change with Mourinho, and clearly hasn’t.

Mourinho has defended Chelsea's tactics (Getty)

That mentality involves a certain cynicism with referees and fouls, which has brought both the biggest criticism from outside and his most controversial moments. He reverted to type in his dispute with Sky, and it brought a quote to rival anything from his first spell at Chelsea, dismissing Graeme Souness and Jamie Redknapp: “Envy is the biggest tribute the shadows do to the man.”

It was theatrical, but then so much of this is an act, and always has the same objective – to condition situations for the benefit of his team. Mourinho admitted as much in an April interview: “I can have something of a Machiavelli in some of my comments.” That is something that will never change, but the element of youthful mischief is often missed by those who rage against him.

Of course, an element of youthful energy is also one thing missing from his squad, despite another Chelsea Youth Cup win. Players such as Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Dominic Solanke haven’t properly featured, but Mourinho insists that is down to not wanting to introduce them in the midst of a title race – and that will change next season.

If it does, and Chelsea play more expansively for more of the season, we may finally have a new Mourinho. As it is, we’re only halfway there.

Chelsea v Crystal Palace is on Sky Sports 1 today, kick-off 1.30pm