It’s been a long time since Jose Mourinho was in the Chelsea dugout, running the blues in his two spells, but before visiting Spurs on Thursday, the narrative still lingers.
Mourinho was very successful twice in West London and won the Premier League three times. Two of them were in his first term in 2004/05 and 2005/06 before the Portuguese coach returned to the club and won it again in 2014/15.
He also won the League Cup three times and the FA Cup once during his two stays in the west of the capital.
Many blues fans will never forget what he did for the club after Roman Abramovich arrived and named “The Special One” to succeed Claudio Ranieri. Still, no love is lost between them and Mourinho, especially now that he is responsible for the rivals for the Blues in north London.
Mourinho left Chelsea for the second time in December 2015, just seven months after securing a third Premier League title for the club. In the 15/16 season, Chelsea lost nine of their 16 games that season before Mourinho got the shoe and the club sat in 16th place in the table.
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Since then, the Portuguese coach has moved on to head Manchester United and now to Spurs. After the end of his first term, he took over the reign of Real Madrid and Inter Milan, where he also had great success.
But how did he fare when he stumbled upon the blues when he wasn’t managing them?
His record isn’t the best that needs to be said as he has only managed to beat the blues five times in 13 tries since he first left Stamford Bridge in 2007.
The first time he played his former team was at Inter Milan in 2010, when the Blues were kicked out of the Champions League in the last 16 legs. Mourinho’s side won both games, 2-1 at the San Siro and 1-0 at Stamford Bridge, two of his five wins against his previous employers.
As the manager of Man Utd, Mourinho only managed two wins in seven attempts against Chelsea. His first visit to United at Stamford Bridge was a 4-0 strike in October 2016 when goals from Pedro, Gary Cahill, Eden Hazard and N’Golo Kante put the Portuguese coach in a humiliating defeat.
The Blues have also knocked United out of the FA Cup this season by winning 1-0 in the sixth round at Stamford Bridge before Mourinho celebrated his first win over Chelsea as Reds manager, a 2-0 win in Old Trafford in April thanks to goals from Marcus Rashford and Ander Herrera.
The following season, Chelsea beat United 1-0 again, this time in the Premier League, with Antonio Conte in charge, as the less spotted Alvaro Morata went home in what was his seventh goal of the season.
Mourinho got his revenge in the second leg when United won the reverse league game at Old Trafford 2-1, but it would be Conte who would have the last laugh.
Despite a disappointing league campaign, the Blues struck gold in the FA Cup final when they beat United 1-0 in the 22nd minute at Wembley thanks to Hazard’s penalty.
Mourinho would only face Chelsea one more time before being sacked by United and that was one of only two draws that have come since Mourinho left the club. That was a 2-2 stalemate in October 2018 when Ross Barkley scored a 96th-minute equalizer for Chelsea, now managed by Maurizio Sarri, who replaced Conte.
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Sarri’s second assistant, Marco Ianni, ran across Mourinho’s path in the dugout, and that led to fights on the contact line.
The next time Mourinho would face Chelsea was after taking command at Spurs after deciding to fire Mauricio Pochettino in November 2019 and he was replaced by the former Chelsea manager.
His first meeting against his former club, which was responsible for his rivals, took place in December 2019. It was another loss, a 2-0 loss, when Willian scored twice for a blues side now led by Frank Lampard.
The former Chelsea midfielder drew a 2-1 win over his former coach at Stamford Bridge in February last year. Marcos Alonso and Olivier Giroud scored a goal for the home team.
This season, Mourinho took a rare win against his former employers in the League Cup earlier this season, 6-5 on penalties in the fourth round after extra time ended 1-1.
Finally, they last met in the Premier League earlier this season, when the two teams drew 0-0 exactly a month after the League Cup game at Stamford Bridge.
