With Mourinho back at the helm after six years away in Europe, Chelsea will be looking at silverware this season. Of course, they are a team that looks for silverware every season, but the fans might feel that this is their year. Under Mourinho's management in the past, Chelsea were arguably the strongest domestic force in the game - winning two Premier Leagues, one FA Cup, two League Cups and one Community Shield all in the space of three years. The one thing they lacked under Mourinho (the first time) was European success, something they have found in his absence. In 2012, under the management of Roberto Di Matteo, The Blues managed to win the Champions' League, beating Bayern Munich in a dramatic penalty shoot out. Also, last season they won the Europa League under the management of Rafa Benitez. However, Mourinho has tasted Champions' League glory - once with Porto in 2004 and again with Inter Milan in 2010 - and so Chelsea will be hopeful he can lead them to more European trophies.
Chelsea's domestic form last season was sound, as they achieved - on the whole - what was expected of them. A 3rd place finish, three points ahead of 4th place Arsenal and three points behind 2nd place Manchester City, is what Chelsea fans have come to terms with as being plain sailing for the London side. However, Chelsea's stats probably warranted a better finish than they got, as they scored more goals than anyone except Manchester United and ended up with the best goal difference of anyone other than Manchester United. So if the stats put them second best behind the 20 time champions, why did they finish 3rd? There was only one game in it between them and Manchester City. Could Jose Mourinho be the man to come in and get them that one game? Could he even achieve more than that?
His transfer activity certainly suggests that, with Chelsea bringing in several quality players so far this summer. Some of those signings include Andre Schurrle, Willian, Kevin De Bruyne and veteran of the game Samuel Eto'o. It is clear from these types of signings that Mourinho wants to bolster Chelsea's attack and that he feels the way to win the title is to score more goals than everyone else in the league. To an extent he is correct, however a good defence is vital in the Premier League.
Chelsea's start to this season has been a good one, with wins over Hull (2-0) and Aston Villa (2-1) and an away draw at Manchester United (0-0) - which is a good result for anyone - they currently sit at the top of the table. Their next six fixtures - Everton (A), Fulham (H), Tottenham (A), Norwich (A), Cardiff (H) and Manchester City (H) - shouldn't provide too much of a challenge (on the whole) for the Europa League champions. Games like Tottenham away, however, may be tricky as Spurs have been one of the league's highest spenders this season and are starting to look like a quality side. Manchester City at home will be another hard game, but home advantage should prevail.
So in conclusion, Chelsea look like challenging for the title this season under Mourinho, as he tries to implement his European style of football into The Blues. Their new signings should go a long way to helping them climb up the table and I think that in May we'll be seeing Chelsea in either the Champions' place or second place.
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