After amassing an impressive record in Premier League matches at Stamford Bridge during the vast majority of his time as Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho has not had too much joy on his recent visits to west London.
In his first spell as Blues boss from 2004 to 2008, the Portuguese turned the Bridge into a fortress as we did not suffer a home defeat in his first 60 games in charge, winning 46 and drawing 14.
Indeed, his good record on our ground continued after he returned in 2013 for his second tenure as manager and it was not until our penultimate home match of the 2013/14 season that he finally tasted defeat in SW6 as a 2-1 loss to Sunderland ended his unbeaten streak at 77 games.
Normal service resumed in 2014/15 as we went unbeaten on our own patch, winning 15 and drawing four en route to lifting the title and a 2-2 draw with Swansea in our opening match of 2015/16 made it 76 wins, 22 draws and one defeat in Jose’s first 99 league games at the Bridge.
However, that amazing record was quickly turned on its head as we lost four of our next seven home matches against the likes of Crystal Palace, Southampton, Liverpool and newly promoted Bournemouth during our disappointing start to the campaign which culminated in Mourinho’s departure for a second time in December 2015.
Since then, the Portuguese has returned to Stamford Bridge five times as manager of Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur but has suffered further disappointment on each of his visits.
His first game back with the Red Devils in October 2016 proved especially painful as his former charges opened the scoring through Pedro after only 30 seconds in a thumping 4-0 win for Antonio Conte’s would-be champions.
N’Golo Kante scored our final goal in that big win and the Frenchman was on target again when United returned five months later, netting the only goal in our 1-0 victory in the FA Cup quarter-finals.
And there was a similar scoreline in the Premier League the following season as Alvaro Morata’s second-half header proved decisive.
The closest the Blues have come to defeat against our former manager was in October 2018 when Ross Barkley scored a dramatic late equalizer six minutes into stoppage time to salvage a 2-2 draw against the Red Devils.
Mourinho parted company with United a couple of months later and returned to management at Spurs in November 2019. However, his woes against the Blues continued as Chelsea did the double against Spurs last season, winning 2-0 at Tottenham’s new stadium in December and 2-1 at the Bridge last February.
Hopefully we will continue that good recent record against our former manager and our London rivals when we host them in the Premier League this weekend.