Friday 16 December 2016 13:53, UK
Saturday marks the anniversary of the day Jose Mourinho was sacked by then defending champions Chelsea with the team in a mess and languishing in 16th. One year on, the Blues are back on top under Antonio Conte. Adam Bate examines the clean-up operation…
Jose Mourinho's final broadcast interview as Chelsea manager in the immediate aftermath of the team's 2-1 defeat at Leicester was brief but comprehensive. He touched on a myriad of issues crippling his side as well as seeming to wonder whether this even was his side any more. "I feel like my work was betrayed," he told Sky Sports.
As well as positing the theory that "I did phenomenal work and brought them to a level that's not their level", there were reflections on once key players.
"Clearly Diego is in trouble in the box," was his view on the star striker. Eden Hazard's injury that saw him walk off the field "must be serious". He was back within a fortnight. Mourinho was long gone.
Twelve months on from the day that Chelsea pulled the plug on a man who had taken them to the Premier League title only seven months earlier, the turnaround has been as dramatic as the decline.
Antonio Conte has renewed the players and restored Chelsea's position with interest. Six points clear, they will be top at Christmas and are now odds on to stay there.
Diego Costa has put his penalty-box problems behind him. He's the Premier League top scorer having already matched last season's tally of 12. Hazard has eight of his own, double his 2015/16 total.
Both men are back to their brilliant best. Maybe even better. But they aren't the only ones. All over the pitch, Chelsea players have shown their true level.
For Mourinho, that might sting. "I know one of my best qualities is to read the game for my players," he said that afternoon at the King Power Stadium.
"It's to read the opponent and identify every detail about the opponent." So when Cesar Azpilicueta allowed Riyad Mahrez onto his stronger foot for what turned out to be the winner, his frustration was palpable.
Where were Hazard and Nemanja Matic on the cover? Was it that they could not do what was required or that they would not do it? Either way, it reflected badly on the players.
Once again Mourinho's third season at a club appeared to have left his squad weighed down by his demands, resulting in the "palpable discord" to which Michael Emenalo referred.
This was a group that apparently lacked mental toughness and the fact that they clambered rather than stormed their way back into the top half under Guus Hiddink was seen as revealing. They were shot. Even Conte downplayed expectations in the early months. "The past is there, it's very clear," he said as recently as October. "We haven't got a magic wand."
But he's cast his spell nevertheless. Chelsea are on a longer winning streak than anything achieved in Mourinho's second spell. The players are ready to take instructions and they are capable of playing a brand of football that requires high concentration levels. It seems it was not the message that these Chelsea players were struggling with but the messenger.
Speaking to both Thibaut Courtois and Willian at the club's Cobham training ground recently, neither man appeared afraid of hard work.
"It's intense," said Willian with a smile, while Courtois explained the team's tactical plans in enthusiastic detail.
Conte is every bit as demanding as the likes of Diego Simeone and Mourinho, suggested the goalkeeper.
All of which points to a group of players who were dormant rather than destroyed by the chastening experience of last season, one that perhaps reached its nadir in the first home game following Mourinho's departure when Costa and Cesc Fabregas were among those targeted by a disgruntled Stamford Bridge crowd keen to pay homage to their fallen leader.
At Sunderland in midweek, Fabregas found himself back in the role of hero - scoring the goal that extended Chelsea's winning run into double figures. The turnaround is complete. The anger of Mourinho's exit that gave way to unease has dissipated. The players are heroes once more. It was the old manager's return that ended in "humiliation".
Conte has changed things just enough, coaxing the best from a group who had lost their way. From civil war to six points clear, against Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon they will have the opportunity to extend that lead to nine at the top of the Premier League table. From disarray to dominance, it's been quite a year.
