The win was needed, more than anything. Forget the performance and forget the fact that another game has gone and Chelsea have looked a billion years away from the team that we saw last season. All that mattered for Mourinho after the terrible loss to Liverpool, was that they won.
I don't even want to go into trying to find out what is wrong with Chelsea, but instead I want to focus on the man, the myth, the outspoken one...Jose.
In what has been a terrible last few weeks for Mourinho, he has visibly aged by five years. The stress is spilling off his face and any one with a pair of eyes would be able to tell that the pressure is getting to him. He's doing his best to not let it get to him, but his eyes are very red these days during interviews. This is the club that he loves dearly and to see them go through such a tough patch must take its toll emotionally. That is why for this match, in a competition that they do seek to try and win with the tag of Premier League champions, it was imperative that they won.
What Mourinho is looking for more than anything is for that game to come finally, when Chelsea play like their old selves. When that confidence comes back, they have that defensive steel about them, and they move the ball around in that intelligent fashion to carve out chances. Tonight against Kyiv, that wasn't the case. It was still a team who looked lost, and were trying to find themselves again. This being against one of the weakest opposition that they will face in the Champions League. Even when they went up by the own goal, you always knew just like with the match against Liverpool that there would always be the chance of the equalizer.
Naturally, the equalizer came and we all feared the worse yet again for Jose. But during these hard times, where there is so much negativity surrounding the club, you need someone to step up. If ever there was a player who Mourinho would buy a yacht for, if he had the spare change, it would be Willian. The Brazilian with the fro has been the one shining light for Chelsea this season. This was yet another beautifully executed free-kick that gave Chelsea those three points. You only have to think if things panned out differently and Willian had gone to Tottenham instead of Chelsea. It's not even worth thinking about the position that Chelsea would find themselves in.
It doesn't get easier for My Boy. They have to go to Stoke City away, and he has a stadium ban. I don't see them winning that game, so you're looking at either a draw or a loss. But it's about taking positives, anywhere you can find it. They won the game against Kyiv, they are second in the Champions League group and they have to keep trying to discover themselves. We saw glimpses of the old Hazard and even Costa towards the end of the game. Mourinho just has to get them playing like that for much longer sustained periods in a match, and hopefully Chelsea can get their mojo back.
HH
