Mourinho revels in his revenge over Chelsea (News Feature)

By Jonathan Wilson Mar 17, 2010, 12:09 GMT

London - Jose Mourinho never spoke of revenge, never said he had a point to prove, and yet everything about him after his Inter Milan side had beaten Chelsea in the Champions League on Tuesday spoke of a man enjoying a personal triumph.

His pre-match press-conference had been a masterpiece of understatement, never stating how much his departure from Stamford Bridge in 2007 had hurt, and yet making it clear he felt he had been hard done to - and pointing out that he had been rather more successful since their parting than Chelsea.

'Life goes on,' he said. 'I keep winning important things ... They win ... something.'

To be precise, Mourinho has won a Serie A, and his side are top of the table again, while Chelsea have lifted only an FA Cup.

Most crucially, though, his Inter beat them in both legs, and while they had fortune on their side in a 2-1 in Milan, when Salomon Kalou was denied a clear penalty, their superiority at Stamford Bridge was obvious.

It led Mourinho into the mock-magnanimity he does so well, as he offered what purported to be gentle advice to the club owner Roman Abramovich.

'Roman is a very intelligent person and because of that he's not the same person that he was when he arrived in football,' he said.

'Probably he thought it would be easy when he first arrived in football. It's not easy. It's difficult. Teams win on small details which make the difference.

'He knows it's not easy now. He knows now how to read a game, understand a game, analyse the game and knows his team lost against a side who deserved to win.

'He's a man of class, so he will accept this defeat because he knows Inter were the best team.'

The sub-text being that Abramovich will also know that getting rid of Mourinho three years ago was an error.

'They had the ambition to go through and they were frustrated because, immediately, they felt that Inter were the best team,' Mourinho went on.

'I'm not saying Inter are better than them. I'm saying that Inter were much better than Chelsea, from the first minute to the last minute, and that brought frustration to their players, great professionals and great people.

'My people will always be my people. But today I was the enemy. And the enemy won. That's life.'

Chelsea, meanwhile, would seem to have major problems. Without the injured Michael Essien they lacked drive from midfield, with both Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack looking like the thirtysomethings they are.

Didier Drogba will feel he was manhandled by Lucio and Walter Samuel and wasn9t protect by the referee, Wolfgang Stark - leading ultimately to the stamp on Thiago Motta for which he was sent off, but the more fundamental problem is that he and Nicolas Anelka seem incapable of playing together.

Without Ashley Cole's thrust from left-back, there is a lack of width about them too and, while they may be able to pummel sides like West Ham United, whom they beat 4-1 on Saturday, top-class opposition is not so easily cowed.

Chelsea may be two points behind Manchester with a game in hand of the Premier League, but given Manchester United9s problems adapting to life after Cristiano Ronaldo, and Arsenal9s habitual frailty, it could be argued that it is a failure not to be several points clear.

Their manager, Carlo Ancelotti, knows that he will face increased scrutiny.

'I've worked for a long time in this environment and I know exactly what expectations are.

'It's normal that a manager is going to come under pressure if he loses a few matches.

' We'll have more pressure on the next few games, but we must be strong and have good control of our emotions,' Ancelotti said.