Doubt lingers around Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho and young English talent does exist

Jonathan Wilson breaks down five key points from the Premier League season: Being last at Christmas is not the end and the league is better with Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal in it.

Our columnist says Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho always wins the league in his second season at a club and he did so again, but he may not be the same force as a decade ago. Reuters / John Sibley

Mourinho’s still got it(?)

There was a theory that Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho had been badly scarred by his rejection at Real Madrid, when players turned against him, and that he had lost some of his ruthlessness as a result.

After a season in which the Chelsea side he constructed dominated the championship, playing first the best attacking football and then the best defensive, the temptation is to discard the theory: when Manchester City closed in around the turn of the year, he was able to amend his approach, manufacture claims of conspiracy to develop a siege mentality, and to inspire his side to the doggedness of the spring.

But a small doubt still lingers: it may have been a different story if the other challengers had mounted a more consistent challenge and the pressure had been sustained.

Chelsea looked exhausted against Paris Saint-Germain and staggered over the line in the Premier League. Mourinho always wins the league in his second season at a club and he did so again, but he may not be the same force as a decade ago.

Young English talent does exist

A global league that happens to play in England it may be, but this has been a season that has confirmed the existence of an exciting emerging generation of local talent.

Harry Kane, with his goals and eagerness, leads the way, but Jack Grealish (who may yet decide he is Irish), Saido Berahino and Nathaniel Clyne also had seasons that promise much for the future.

Being last at Christmas is not the end

For a long time, to be bottom of the Premier League table at Christmas meant you would be relegated. Only one side, West Bromwich Albion in 2004/05 had escaped from that position.

This season, Leicester City followed what Sunderland had done in 2013/14 and dragged themselves up from the basement in the second half of the season to beat the drop with a game to spare.

In retrospect, West Brom’s escape looks pedestrian – only five victories in the second half of the season, one in the final eight games. They survived thanks to draws.

Sunderland last season, with hilarious unpredictability, took 13 points from a run of five games beginning in April that included trips to Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United.

Leicester this year won six matches out of seven from the beginning of April. The lesson is that, at Christmas, no position is ever hopeless.

Tottenham are Tottenham

Spurs have an impressive manager in Mauricio Pochettino. They have a squad that, while perhaps not as good as it might be, given what has been spent on it, remains strong.

They will put together a run of decent performances, beat Chelsea or Arsenal, and onlookers will begin to wonder whether this time they might be about to impose themselves at the top of the table.

Then they will lose at Crystal Palace or draw at home to West Ham and it will be remembered that, in the end, they are still Tottenham, doomed to be disappointing also-rans.

Premier League is better for having Louis van Gaal in it

Manchester United have been hugely inconsistent this season, but the three victories in succession against Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester City offered hope for next season.

But the real attraction at Old Trafford has been Louis van Gaal, who has demonstrated tactical flexibility, using Marouane Fellaini as a deep-lying target man and switching regularly from a back three to back four, while speaking a strangely beautiful staccato form of English that, as with the language of any guru, manages to be simultaneously profound and obscure.

His recent line, “I’ve seen a lady who plays the saxophone ...” after enjoying himself at an end-of-season party has an inexplicable but undeniable poetry.

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