Chelsea vs Porto match report: Relief for Jose Mourinho as Blues progress in Champions League

Chelsea 2 Porto 0: Willian adds to early own goal

(2015 Getty Images)

If this was Jose Mourinho’s last stand, the final whimpers of an ending empire, it certainly did not feel like it. Chelsea, for the first time this season, played like the champions of England. They produced a performance stamped with the old Mourinho qualities of defensive control and attacking incision, better than almost anything else they have shown in 2015.

This was a Champions League standard of performance from Chelsea, not allowing a handy Porto side to lay a finger on them. It felt absurd to watch this and to know that Chelsea were staring the Europa League in the face beforehand. Even more absurd is the fact that a team who can do this are 14th in the league table during Christmas party season, but there we are.

Whether Chelsea’s beleaguered players were playing for their own futures, for their manager, or simply to stay in the Champions League is beside the point. What was evidently clear here in the drizzle was that Chelsea are a good team who, for their own combination of reasons, have been playing very badly. This was a performance of unambiguous quality. Porto barely registered.

There were moments last night when the last four months, ever since the Community Shield and that feisty opening day draw with Swansea City, looked like a bad dream. It must have felt to fans and players that they had been transported back 12 months, to the autumn of 2014 when Chelsea ripped through the Premier League on their way to winning it.

Diego Costa and Eden Hazard, two players who had completely lost their way this season, both produced easily their best performances of the season. This is just one match out of four months, but if those two can retain these levels over Christmas and beyond, then the prospects for Chelsea’s season, and for Jose Mourinho, are suddenly slightly brighter.

Costa was back in the team here, after two games on the bench, in which he was forced to watch Hazard play up front with the imagination and fizz that had drifted out of his game. This was not Costa at his best, as his touch is still on its slow way back. But it was a better Costa, a Costa who has learned from what Mourinho has told him, a Costa who was willing and able to make those clever runs for the good of the team.

When Chelsea started last season so strongly it was in part because of Costa’s dangerous leading of the line, testing out opposition defences. Last night he tried to do that again, helping make the important first goal after just 12 minutes. Hazard flicked a clever pass in behind and Costa burst onto it, skipping past the soft challenge of Ivan Marcano.

Through on goal, Costa shot straight at Iker Casillas. The ball rebounded and hit Marcano, running back towards goal, in the chest. Maicon dashed back and tried to clear it, but was too late. Chelsea had ricocheted their way into the lead.

Costa continued to cause Porto problems with his runs, even if one of those runs ended on Casillas’ foot, for a booking that was unnecessary even by Costa’s casual standards. Chelsea were still rediscovering their football, and ended the first half with two genuinely earned chances. Oscar played a precise one-two with Willian, only for his shot to be deflected wide off Miguel Layun, before Costa dragged a shot wide from a tight angle.

If there was any worry for Chelsea it was that a 1-0 home lead no longer means that the game is in the bag. The painful defeats here to Liverpool and Southampton have taught them that. What Chelsea needed, at the start of the second half, was a quick second goal. It soon came, as Eden Hazard seized control of proceedings.

Mourinho has spent much of this season trying to cajole Hazard back to his best form, moving him for the left, to number 10, to number 9 and back again. Here he was back out wide, but at the centre of every Chelsea attack, running the game and creating chances with his sharp passing. Hazard begun the second half by making a chance for Willian, which was saved, but Chelsea did not have to wait much longer to double their lead.

Azpilicueta knocked a ball down the left hand side, where Costa had pulled out. He nodded the ball back to Hazard, in dangerous space in the middle. Hazard passed it through to Willian on his right, who left Bruno Martins Indi behind and smacked the ball into the near bottom corner of the net.

Chelsea were two goals up and three away from the Europa League, which is how the scoreline stayed. But that cushion gave them a confidence they have lacked all season, and they started, led by Hazard, to attack with more vigour and imagination than they have shown for some time. He made one chance for Ramires, who could not escape his marker. He made another for a tiring Costa who overran the ball. But the movement and combination play had returned to Mourinho’s side.

The only real difference between this team and the electric Chelsea of last autumn was the absence of Cesc Fabregas. He has been the most consistent underperformer this season and was replaced by Ramires here, who provided more energy and pace in a midfield which could live with Porto very comfortably.

Porto’s only threat came before the opening goal, when Yacine Brahimi, who tortured Chelsea in Portugal in September, twice drifted past Azpilicueta and made Courtois make one good near post save. But after that the only defending Chelsea had to do was in the final minutes. John Terry twice snuffed out Vincent Aboubakar while Courtois made one good stretching save from Tello. But by that stage Chelsea were 2-0 up and strolling into the last-16 as winners of Group G. It was difficult, as they cruised through the final stages, opening up Porto at will on the break, to remember what all the fuss was about.