Chelsea 3 Manchester United 0: Chelsea's coronation party topped off by Mourinho's bizarre star turn

Sam Wallace
Monday 01 May 2006 00:00 BST
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Maybe the champagne he had sipped out on the pitch had made the Premiership's leading manager a little tipsy, or perhaps he had been waiting to unleash this tirade for months. But on Saturday, Jose Mourinho, like his team, saved the best until last. As Chelsea conquered the Premiership again, their manager set about taking on the world.

His invective was one more twist in a surreal weekend at the top of English football. At Stamford Bridge on Saturday it was hard to know where to look next. There was the funereal atmosphere that accompanied Wayne Rooney's departure with a cracked metatarsal bone, the six men carrying the stretcher felt like pall-bearers for England's World Cup hopes. That and Chelsea's coronation, seemed enough excitement for one afternoon - but the Mourinho show had barely even begun.

His Chelsea side proved beyond any doubt that they are the masters of the Premiership with a destruction of Manchester United that will flicker continually across Sir Alex Ferguson's mind as he tries to relax this summer. But before they could even present the Premiership trophy, Mourinho lobbed into the Matthew Harding stand the top half of his expensive suit, followed by not one but two Premiership winners' medals.

It was the sign that the Chelsea manager was in one of his more unpredictable moods. Instead of recognising great teams he has built, he said, people saw only "coins, pound signs, big numbers and transfer fees ". He had, he said, come close to quitting Chelsea twice in the season because they were "the worst club in the world to be the manager". "You can achieve, you can win leagues," he said, "but it is never enough."

And that was just the beginning. His achievements, Mourinho said, had only been recognised by the Manager of the Month trophy twice in two years (and you thought that award was just a meaningless sponsor's gimmick), there were enemies in Portugal he described as "rats" out to get him and every club Chelsea tried to buy a player from, he said, charged an extortionate price. That elaborate explanation was made with a glass of water as a prop. "To everybody else this glass is £2m," Mourinho said, "for Chelsea £200m."

An extraordinary reaction to another extraordinary day in the life of Chelsea football club. How good were Mourinho's team? So good that Joe Cole scored one of the greatest goals of the season by beating Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Mikaël Silvestre in one glorious twist and sprint. John Terry commanded United's best attacks with a gash on his foot that turned his white sock crimson. Their dominance was expressed in every area of the pitch.

And yet for Mourinho, all this was not enough. "Chelsea are not a club that people have taken to their heart, that's one of the reasons I thought about leaving," he said. "But Roman [Abramovich] and the group are fantastic people and I stay for them.

"I'm not happy. Yes because I'm healthy, but I think I should be more happy and I'm not. This is my fourth championship in a row [with Porto and Chelsea] without losing at home. I have all the reasons to be happy but I'm not. I still feel a little bit strange. I'm not obsessed by the Champions' League but I want to win it."

Everyone else felt a bit strange, too, by the time that Mourinho had finished. He shook the hands of the United staff, including Ferguson, before the end of the match which allowed him to stride triumphantly on to the turf at the final whistle, a Portugal national team scarf wrapped around his neck. Patriotism or a dig at the Football Association over the Luiz Felipe Scolari débâcle? With Mourinho we have given up guessing.

His team had shut United down in every department. Park Ji-Sung was marked into isolation, Cristiano Ronaldo was at his worst. It was the 20-year-old who needlessly conceded possession for the first goal, Chelsea won a corner and from the cross Didier Drogba won the first header before William Gallas nodded the ball in from close range.

It was a wonder that Ronaldo stayed on as long as 64 minutes. Ferguson swore in disbelief as the winger lumped a promising free-kick into the stand on 53 minutes before, on the hour, Cole struck. He wriggled away from Ferdinand, coasted past Vidic and bounced off Silvestre before beating Edwin van der Sar. Sublime.

Rooney had earlier clashed with Drogba, and split Terry's leg open, but the reaction to his injury was remarkable. Even in a stadium that can be as spiteful as Stamford Bridge, a mood of gloom descended as Rooney was loaded on to the stretcher. Terry and Frank Lampard came over in concern and even Mourinho patted the player's leg as he passed on his way down the tunnel. For anyone who loves football, his departure was painful.

By then Chelsea were three goals up, a move started by Ricardo Carvalho's tackle in his own area included passes from Michael Essien and Cole and ended with the defender arriving in the area to beat Van der Sar. When the old centre-back who barely passes the halfway line scores - think Tony Adams's goal for Arsenal as they sealed the title against Everton in May 1998 - then the season is well and truly over.

Not for Mourinho, he was ready to blame the press for his team's exit from the Champions' League and railed against the iniquity of a system that punishes his players but excuses others like Ronaldinho. "When Barcelona played Benfica there was a free-kick and Ronaldinho went to measure the 10 yards for the wall," Mourinho said. "If another player did that, yellow card, goodbye, disappear. Ronaldinho, a walk, a smile, a laugh and it's done."

How did we get to Ronaldinho on the day that Chelsea won the title? Ask Mourinho. By then he was getting it all off his chest. The organisation of the start of next season? "Disgraceful," he said, "the players come back to us [from the World Cup] and two weeks later have to play in the Community Shield." On the day the title was won, it was war not peace that broke out at Stamford Bridge.

Goals: Gallas (5) 1-0; J Cole (60) 2-0; Carvalho (73) 3-0.

Chelsea (4-1-4-1): Cech; Gallas, Carvalho, Terry, Ferreira; Makelele; J Cole (Crespo, 76), Essien, Lampard, Robben (Duff, 66); Drogba (Maniche, 85). Substitutes not used: Cudicini (gk), Geremi.

Manchester United (4-4-2): Van der Sar; Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Silvestre; Ronaldo (Van Nistelrooy, 64), Giggs (Richardson, 73), O'Shea, Park; Rooney (Evra, 82), Saha. Substitutes not used: Howard (gk), Brown.

Referee: M Dean (Wirral).

Bookings: Chelsea: Cech, Makelele, J Cole. Manchester United: Rooney, Ronaldo.

Man of the match: J Cole.

Attendance: 42,219

£4,300 bid for Mourinho medal

A Chelsea fan claiming to have caught the first of the two Premiership winner's medals Jose Mourinho threw into the Stamford Bridge crowd (right) attracted bids of up to £4,300 on eBay last night.

Appealing for "serious bidders only", the vendor said: "I was at Stamford Bridge to see Chelsea beat Man Utd 3-0 and was lucky enough to grab the first of the two medals thrown by Jose into the crowd." Earlier, a hoax seller had attracted bids of £10m. Mourinho said on Saturday that whoever caught the medals would be able to keep them as a memento or "make a fortune on eBay".

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