Chelsea Shocker

The Premier League. The Champions League. The F.A. Cup. The Carling Cup. An unbeaten season. Love and respect beyond their own fan base. Briefly, it was all on for Chelsea. And now, just two games in, no chance of ‘doing an Arsenal’ and as for being universally popular, forget it – it wasn’t even a full house at The Riverside for this one.

It seems that the Teeside hoodoo has struck again, as Chelsea slumped to their second successive league defeat against modest Middlesbrough. The Champions went ahead as early as the 16th minute, when £30 million striker Shevchenko squeezed in his first Premiership goal and they had chances to increase their lead, notably from Salomon Kalou within two minutes and a Lampard header which hit the bar 17 minutes after the interval.

In the end they paid a heavy price for a lacklustre display, as Pogatetz equalised with a bullet header in the 80th minute and substitute Mark Viduka grabbed a dramatic winner in extra time to give new Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate a dream start in his first home game.

As for Mourinho, he knew that Chelsea were nothing special and he also knew that Manchester United’s emphatic win at Charlton had swept them to the top of the table with maximum points. No wonder he was subdued.