You want to know Antonio Conte's secret to success? The score is 3-0 in Chelsea's favour, and Marcos Alonso had just given the ball away. Above the insanely loud crowd at the Bridge, the Italian's voice could be clearly heard - He was yelling "I will kill you".
He is moulding Chelsea into his mirror image, and it is a frightening sight for the rest of the Premier League.
Manchester United were shabby, disjointed, lacking a plan B and looked tired after their Thursday night exertions. Mourinho has to do something here, or United will fast slip out of contention for a top 4 finish - forget talk of any titles.
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Mourinho's return to Stamford Bridge was always going to be full of drama. No one, though, could have predicted this.
Eden Hazard was given a lot of stick for his role in Mourinho’s dismissal – the two seemed to have a major falling out, and he must have been particularly pleased to put in a Man of the Match performance against his former Manager
"It gives us a lot of confidence, we started well, we deserved to win, for the fans, for us, it is a great afternoon.
"It is a big game and we lost two big games this season against Liverpool and Arsenal, so it means a lot to our fans.
Jose Mourinho was unusually analytical about the whole thing –
"It started badly after a few seconds. We are close to the 1-1 and after another defensive mistake and it is 2-1. You come with a strategy, you can not concede a goal in the way we did. We were coming to have an offensive approach, we wanted to create chances, we showed that after the 1-0. The second and the third were counter-attack goals. If we score a goal like we almost did for the 2-1 the game would be different.
It is one of those days when you give the advantage to opponents by doing nothing. We made incredible defensive mistakes, individual mistakes and you pay for that. In terms of points, we got zero points, we lose three points. We are six points from the top, three from the top four, we now need to win matches. We need to win our matches now, which are not easy, we need to win to close that gap, after these last three matches, we made two out of nine, we now need points.
It was fine, I was not expecting anything different here. The crowd behaved in a normal way”
He stayed positive, though, and said that the team played well!
"The team played well, if we can delete the defensive mistakes we made. Thibaut Courtois had more work than De Gea, their defenders had more work than my defenders. They are very dangerous in counter-attack, we knew that. I said if we score at the 2-1 game is different, that was not for us and they scored the third and fourth.
When mistakes are individual it is hard for the manager and the players, they know the mistakes that were made.
Football matches start at 0-0, this match started 1-0. It is like giving Chelsea chance to play how they want. Everything went in their direction.
I was focused on the game, calm with a bit of adrenaline, I didn't feel it different to any other big matches."
When asked about what it was that he whispered to Conte, he was categorical –
My words were with Antonio Conte were for him, not for you."
Juan Mata has spoken as well –
This is a painful result.
From the first minute it started very badly. I felt that when we were close to their goal they scored, every time, and that was the key to the game. It is just three points, we have another important game in a few days so we need to learn from our mistakes."
Antonio Conte has also had his say –
"I am pleased with the performance, we started well, moved the ball quickly, created chances to score the goal. I see the commitment in training and the players deserve this. We are improving, we must continue to work, only through the work we can improve.
"I did not see the David Luiz situation, I think Luiz played a fantastic game then I don't know if he deserved a red [after his tackle on Marouane Fellaini].
It is very important after the Arsenal and Liverpool defeats, it was important to understand our mission. We must look to Wednesday against West Ham and prepare for that.
When asked what he was telling the crowd, he said -
"I was listening to the support of Manchester United, always supporting their team and I was asking my team to do a clap for my players. All the players deserves this clap."
Gary Neville has tried analysing The Great United Midfield Conundrum, and for once, failed -
“Man United have signed a £180m worth of midfielders over the past few years and I still don’t know which is the best pair"
He added his two sterlings worth on United’s midfield -
"It was embarrassing from Pogba and Herrera. Kanté just walked through them. They are the central midfield players”
He added –
"Manchester United's best performer today has been their away fans."
Thierry Henry has a point. Sorry for the pun
"Those players that didn't play well under Mourinho wanted to prove a point to him today."
He added – “Eden was amazing. Matic had a very good game, too. All the Chelsea players had a very good game.
Chelsea don’t play in Europe, they have time to prepare for their games and understand exactly what Conte wants."
Several former players are having right good time on Twitter. Here’s a selection of their best tweets
LOL Eidur!!
Typically simple and straight forward from the German –
Well, we all know what Lukas wants. Schweini-time maybe, Jose?
This is interesting –
