Chelsea are playing sexy football like the old Arsenal

Meantime Arsene Wenger put out a team that got a great away win by playing some functional, effective football reminiscent of Chelsea circa 2005.

I know which I prefer.

I wrote this about Jose Mourinho in my book Is He All That? (available in pound shops up and down the country): 'It's impossible to knock Mourinho's winning habit…(but) his style is rigid and formulaic. Sometimes it's labelled negative and defensive.'

It was right at the time, but even those more critical of Mourinho than myself must surely now stand back and admire the change in this manager, and the style of his current Chelsea team.

I have been to see Chelsea on numerous occasions this season. There is of course that defensive efficiency with which Mourinho's teams are synonymous (it went AWOL at Spurs), but further up the field things have changed.

In his first spell at Chelsea he had a goalscoring midfielder in Frank Lampard and an out-and-out striker in Didier Drogba, but the rest were asked by the manager to be defenders. 

This is why players like Arjen Robben became frustrated. The Dutchman said this after leaving Mourinho's Real Madrid: 'He puts out a winning team, it does not matter if it's done with nice football or not.'

Further evidence is when Joe Cole scored the winner against Liverpool in 2005. Mourinho said this in his post-match interview: 'I needed 11 players for my defensive organization, but I had just 10. Joe…has to improve when the team needs him to be part of a defensive organization.'

Things have changed.

I made the trip to Wales at the weekend to see a decent Swansea side ripped to shreds by some spectacular, sensational, sexy Chelsea football.

Jose's players did their defending when out of possession of course, and Swansea weren't at their best, but Chelsea were a joy to watch. 

It wasn't functional, it wasn't formulaic. It was bright, it was pleasing on the eye, and at the risk of enraging Mourinho, dare I say, it was like watching Pep Guardiola's Barcelona at their peak.

Chelsea led 4-0 at half-time with some stunning flowing football and some wonderfully crafted goals. It could have been six or seven at the break.

Take the second goal: when Cesc Fabregas receives the ball around 35 yards out, there are nine Swansea players between him and the goal. Four passes and less than six seconds later, Diego Costa has hit the back of the net.

They eased off after the interval but still scored a brilliant goal in which Eden Hazard sparkled during the build-up.

He won't like being called the new Arsene Wenger, he'll hate being labelled as the next Guardiola, but Jose Mourinho is certainly a manager reborn. 

(dailymail.co.uk)