Mourinho's way brings rapid evolution

When you try to make sense of Jose Mourinho's stupendous achievement this season, the mind balks at analysing a manager who seems to have navigated an nine-month course to the Premiership title that has been uncorrupted by failure, self-doubt or unfulfilled targets. Chelsea's stampede to the top appears to have trampled any method of examination other than praise and rapture at a campaign without blemishes.

When you try to make sense of Jose Mourinho's stupendous achievement this season, the mind balks at analysing a manager who seems to have navigated an nine-month course to the Premiership title that has been uncorrupted by failure, self-doubt or unfulfilled targets. Chelsea's stampede to the top appears to have trampled any method of examination other than praise and rapture at a campaign without blemishes.

Unfortunately, however, Mourinho will have to learn that there is a melancholic streak in his new country's persona that prefers to take the measure of a man in defeat rather than triumph, and in order to do that we have to return to an unremarkable day in mid-October. Chelsea's solitary Premiership loss of the season, to Manchester City, provoked mild surprise at the time but it ushered in a stage in the development of the new Premiership champions that has proved crucial to their success.

It was in the aftermath of defeat at the City of Manchester stadium on 16 October that Mourinho's Chelsea project began its genesis from the ultra-conservative team that smothered Manchester United on the first day of the season to the free-scoring masters of football on the break. Unbeknown to us at the time, Mourinho, as he admitted on Friday, had begun the season under intense pressure. The pressure that comes from stepping into the natural habitat of Arsène Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson.

Mourinho has since admitted that, for the first few months of the season, he fought a battle to persuade his team to play the way he wanted them to and not the way the rest of the country thought they should. The rest, which included Ferguson, believed a midfield that included Geremi and Tiago to be unspeakably dull and when, back in mid-August, Mourinho tried to make friends with the Old Trafford manager - he said United were worth a point - it was thrown back at him. "I don't need him to tell me that," Ferguson muttered.

By the time they came to City, Chelsea had won six matches, although only Crystal Palace had been beaten by more than one goal. However, Didier Drogba, with five goals already, was injured in the win over Liverpool and it was him that Mourinho missed most at Manchester City.

"We are getting into the positions to finish teams off but when we get the chances we don't seem to be taking them. We aren't clinical in the same way as Arsenal." It hardly seems credible now, but that was John Terry's analysis of his Chelsea team after they had gnawed ineffectively at a City defence that defended its lead for 79 minutes. The cautious approach was threatening to engulf the first young shoots of Mourinho's team's growth.

It was hard to decide what must have been more humiliating for Mourinho that afternoon. Losing to a manager in Kevin Keegan whose notion of rigorous tactical preparation was 45 minutes of head tennis during training, or the section of the City crowd who stood up en masse behind the Chelsea coach to mimic every desperate gesture he made. Either way, you felt that something was about to change.

What followed has been described by Mourinho as the "beautiful period". It might also come to be known to students of Chelsea as "The Age of Arjen Robben". He made his first appearance for the club in the 4-0 win over Blackburn on 23 October and played in every one of the other five matches before Christmas in which his side scored four goals. Robben might have been a gift to Mourinho from Peter Kenyon, but it was the Chelsea manager who had the confidence to play the Dutchman and Damien Duff, both left-wingers, in the same XI.

The contribution of Terry, Frank Lampard, Petr Cech, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Claude Makelele will be remembered first from Chelsea's title-winning season and Mourinho signed none of those players. But the progress he made in first sealing Chelsea's defence and then setting free their attacking instincts, crammed the normal evolution of a successful team into the space of a few months. Chelsea's favoured formation of a lone striker supported by two traditional wingers, is not easy to interpret and it has been poorly imitated elsewhere, not least at Old Trafford.

The transformation of Joe Cole has also been attributed to Mourinho, although it is tempting to think that he achieved that rather more through default. At Ewood Park on 2 February, another pivotal game in the title-chase, Cole came on a substitute for the injured Robben but was so tactically undisciplined that he was taken off before the end of Chelsea's 1-0 win. He flounced down the tunnel and Mourinho dropped him for the next game but, since his recall against Everton on 12 February, Cole has started an unprecedented 13 consecutive matches.

Whether Mourinho was ever certain that Cole would meet the challenge is open to debate, but what is certain is that the Chelsea coach has created an environment in which players can flourish - as long as they do it Mourinho's way. Jiri Jarosik and Tiago illustrate that better than most. They are ciphers for Mourinho's more defensive instincts, limited players who carry out his whispered instructions to the letter and their introduction to a game is a sure sign that the contest is about to be closed down.

It would be wrong to assume that Mourinho does not care about how he or his team have been perceived if, for nothing else, it affects his players' self-esteem. For sheer attacking force Chelsea are not comparable to the Arsenal team of last season or the United side of the start of the decade but they do possess something neither of those two had. They have the ability to switch from attack to defence - to revert to that pre-October shape - in an instant. They represent the two sides of Mourinho and each, the Premiership has found, is as daunting as the other.

Mourinho's trophies

2003

PORTUGUESE TITLE: Mourinho wins the league in his first full season at the club, finishing 11 points above second-placed Benfica. Deco and Derlei create and score the goals.

UEFA CUP: Celtic were angered by time-wasting tactics during Porto's 3-2 win in Seville. Henrik Larsson scored the Scottish side's goals but two Derlei strikes and a Dmitri Alenitchev goal hands Mourinho his first European trophy.

PORTUGUESE CUP: Mourinho completes a treble after beating Uniao Leiria in Portugal's top cup competition.

2004

PORTUGUESE TITLE: Another league title, this time beating second-placed Benfica by eight points, only losing two games all season. Burdened by extra games in the Champions' League but boosted by the form of centre-back Ricardo Carvalho.

CHAMPIONS' LEAGUE

An emotional triumph for Mourinho as Porto beat Monaco 3-0 in Gelsenkirchen. They knocked out Manchester United in an earlier round courtesy of a last-minute goal from Costinha at Old Trafford.

2005

CARLING CUP: Mourinho's first trophy as Chelsea manager, beating Liverpool 3-2 after extra time at the Millennium Stadium. He angered Liverpool fans by making a "ssh" gesture after Steven Gerrard had scored an own goal to equalise.

PREMIERSHIP TITLE: After dominating the competition all season, by spring there was little doubting the Premiership trophy would be Chelsea's. The title was clinched on Saturday with three games to spare after the 2-0 win at Bolton.