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It was another false dawn for the Premier League champions, who were outclassed and showed an alarming lack of unity in their latest defeat.
It turns out Jose Mourinho is the real Tinkerman. Claudio Ranieri may have pioneered squad rotation at Chelsea, switching and shuffling his players in a manner that bemused many, but he never effected change on this scale. He never transformed champions into chumps quite like this.
In a season of unprecedented indignities, the latest may be the greatest for Mourinho. Not because Chelsea lost to Leicester, but because he was supposed to be Ranieri’s superior. It was why Chelsea undermined and replaced the Italian with the Portuguese in 2004, why Mourinho has spent the last 11 years looking down on his likeable predecessor.
Defeats to Roberto Martinez, Ronald Koeman, Slaven Bilic, Mark Hughes and Eddie Howe might not cut to Moruinho’s core quite like this. He was beaten by Ranieri, the man who, when he was Inter manager, he described as “too old”, “almost 70” (at 56) and a winner only of two small trophies. This was a personal slight, another blow to Mourinho’s ego.
It will surely be quite some time before he mocks Ranieri again. Not with Leicester top and Chelsea a point above the relegation zone, below injury-hit newcomers Bournemouth and a supposedly in-crisis Newcastle. Ranieri’s revenge – even if the Italian proves too much of a smiling diplomat to term it as such – was to leave his successor at Stamford Bridge with unwanted proof that Chelsea’s calamitous campaign is in a still more critical condition.
Consider the facts. There has been a 66-point swing between these teams this season. Chelsea finished 46 ahead of Leicester in May. Now they are 20 behind them. Chelsea’s decline is as extraordinary as the statistics. Should they win every one of their remaining league games, they will still finish with six points fewer than they did last season.
Mourinho stated before kick-off that Chelsea had to beat Leicester to finish ahead of them. It now seems inconceivable that they can bridge a 20-point gap in 22 games. Leicester look fitter and faster, more cohesive and more confident. They have players in the best spells of their careers, Chelsea some in the worst of theirs.
This is a season that resolutely refuses to get any better. Every time Chelsea think they have turned a corner, they reverse back around it. Because their campaign has been littered with false dawns. Last week’s win over Porto can be filed alongside the triumphs over Arsenal and Dynamo Kiev. Each was supposed to kickstart a revival. Each was against opponents who were limited or, in Arsenal’s case, depleted. None were vintage performances. None showed that Mourinho had found a winning formula.
His blueprints have to be ripped up with regularity. Cesc Fabregas was benched at the King Power Stadium. When he came on Mourinho abandoned his usual back four for a three-man defence. When Loic Remy was introduced, Pedro and Willian swapped flanks, the Portuguese was tinkering more than Ranieri in his Blues heyday.
The Frenchman got a goal back but it felt Mourinho was making his changes in desperation, not with inspiration. Chelsea’s goal came from some overdue urgency. Leicester’s two featured more quality.
The details of their rise are damning. Ranieri is doing what Mourinho used to. The Italian is getting more from his players than any of his predecessors did. The Portuguese is getting less from his than he used to.
Leicester played with the hunger Chelsea used to exhibit. They are no respecters of reputations. The reigning Footballer of the Year, Eden Hazard, was shoved over by his possible successor, Jamie Vardy. The Belgian hobbled away down the tunnel with what seemed an innocuous hip injury. It was an incident to sum up Chelsea’s brittleness and ineffectiveness this season.
Vardy looks indestructible, Hazard all took fragile. The sense is it would have taken much more than that to force the Leicester top scorer off, but he is propelled by an irresistible momentum whereas Hazard is stuck in a remarkable rut. He has gone from inspired to impotent. He has gone 225 days without a club goal. Even if he recovers form and fitness to strike against Sunderland on Saturday, his drought will have spanned 230.
Diego Costa has been dropped and then recalled. It made little difference. He has gone from force of nature to constant complainer. He moaned that the Chelsea defence were asleep. He reacted angrily to a late challenge from Vardy. He missed his best chance, denied by Kasper Schmeichel. He has still only scored three league goals this season.
Vardy has five times as many goals as Costa, Riyad Mahrez eight more. Just as many wondered if there would be a drop off in their displays, each reached new heights. They are this season’s Costa and Hazard. When players perform at such a level for supposedly lesser clubs, it tends to prompt suggestions the superpowers will come calling.
Now, just as Chelsea look a team in need of an injection of impetus and incision, Leicester have reasons to resist bids for either. It could be the key to a top-four finish that no one predicted. Least of all Mourinho.
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