José Mourinho prepares for his fifth Barclays Premier League opening day fixture that commences on Monday against Burnley at the Turf Moor.
This is the first time ‘The Special One’ will play his first league game of the season on a Monday as he has previously played all on a Sunday.
However in all opening day fixtures Mourinho has grabbed all 3 points from every opponent his has faced on the day.
Having had that in perspective, us Chelsea fans will very much be looking forward to taking all 3 points in our first game and against an opponent like Burnley, probably a couple of goals to savor.
So while we are at it, here’s a quick review of all José Mourinho’s opening day fixtures as a Chelsea manager:
Chelsea 1-0 Man.Utd (2004)
José Mourinho’s first league game as a Chelsea manager ever, he had just declared himself ‘The Special One’ and started to prove it from day one. José gave a start to three debut players, Cech, Paulo Ferreira and Drogba and brought on debutant Mateja Kezman in the second half, another debutant in the league. Gudjohnsen pounced on an error for from Man.Utd’s Tim Howard to score in the 14th minute which proved to be all what Chelsea needed for 3 points.
Wigan 0-1 Chelsea (2005)
After winning the Premier League last season, Chelsea travelled to the JJB Stadium to face new comers, Wigan Athletic, who had just been promoted from the Championship. Everyone thought this would be a pitiful trashing on the Wigan side by José’s multimillionaire squad, boy how wrong they were. Instead of the Lactics to be overwhelmed by the Blues it was the other way around, Chelsea found it difficult to break down the new comers and were had to pull off some impressive defending to prevent a goal by Wigan as the side pressed on, but in the 90th minute, Chelsea’s Hernan Crespo who had just returned from his loan spell in Italy sealed all 3 points with a
belter.
Chelsea 3-0 Man.City (2006)
Chelsea had just won the Premier League back to back and was becoming the bigger side in London and England having signed world class players like, Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko for a record fee to emphasize more dominance in the future. The Blues started their campaign against Man.City who hadn’t undergone their Arab evolution at the time, trashing the Manchester side 3-0 comfortably at Stamford Bridge. The three goals came from what we now consider as the ‘old guard’, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba all in their prime at the time.
Chelsea 3-2 Birmingham (2007)
Chelsea started the season immediately breaking a record after defeating Birmingham to set a record of 64 home games without the taste of defeat. The game ended in an unlikely José opening day fashion but the 3 points were still secured, Mikael Forsell, a former player for the club opened the scoring against us before new striker Claudio Pizzaro who arrived from Bayern Munich on a free transfer leveled the game with a first time strike. Another debutant, Florent Malouda, put us ahead before Birmingham responded again to make the game 2-2. In the second half however, Michael Essien settled things with a 25 yarder strike.
Chelsea 2-0 Hull City (2013)
A day many Chelsea fans dreamed about, after his exit in 2007, José Mourinho was back as a Chelsea manager to take over the Roman Empire once again especially being the main architect behind the team, this time declaring himself ‘The Happy One’. Different title, same outcome, José’s Chelsea continued their trend of 3 points on the opening day, Oscar opened the scoring while Frank Lampard rifled in a free kick to secure all 3 points for Mourinho’s return.
