Five-star Chelsea reign supreme in Germany again

Jose Mourinho billed Chelsea “perfect”, as his side shackled Schalke, and then dismantled them 5-0 in their own backyard. The result moves the Blues to third favourites with Coral at 5/1 to win the Champions League, and means they qualify for the last 16 of the competition.

“I don’t remember Chelsea playing this way away from home,” said Mourinho. “Obviously, there have been great wins away from home with me, Roberto and other managers. But this was very impressive. Very complete.”

“I think they have to accept we were too strong for them,” continued Mourinho. “When you lose against a team that produces a perfect performance and a perfect result it’s not your fault.”

Roberto Di Matteo accepted that the visiting team were too strong for his side on the night. Chelsea led 3-0 at half time, thanks to strikes from John Terry, Willian plus an own goal from Jan Kirchhoff.

Didier Drogba, who virtually won the Champions League for the Blues against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena in 2012, added a fourth, with Ramires netting the fifth.

“It is certainly a disappointing night for us in terms of the scoreline, and also the way we played,” Swiss-born ex-Italy international Di Matteo said, under whose guidance Chelsea won their first ever Champions League title, only to be dismissed by owner Roman Abramovich, six months later.

“But we did play against a really great team. If you concede too much space and time to those players, they’ll exploit that.”

There is no doubt that Mourinho is aiming for both a Premier League and Champions League double this season, and his team have 11/2 odds to achieve this. Whenever he has won the latter, he achieved success in his respective domestic league as well. The former seems sewn up, and they’re clearly the best team in England right now.

Mourinho will be targeting this trophy as quickly as possible, while they also have a quarter-final tie against Derby County in the Capital One Cup, which they are 5/4 to win.