Two victories, two clean sheets and two cases of evidence of improvement. Perhaps normal service is being resumed. Perhaps Chelsea are becoming Chelsea again.
And yet, in a season abounding with false dawns, Sunday’s early kick-off should show if this is another. Norwich and Maccabi Tel Aviv have been duly beaten but, in previous seasons, that would not have been noteworthy. Such results would have been taken for granted.
Not now. The deepest slump of Jose Mourinho’s managerial career has taken him, and Chelsea, into uncharted territory. A year of novel experiences began on January 1, when they last visited White Hart Lane. Then, for the only time under Mourinho, Chelsea conceded five times.
That was New Year’s Day and if Chelsea recovered to win two trophies, including the League Cup at Tottenham’s expense, it set the tone for a more uncertain 2015.
Not that anything offered a true preview of their sudden capitulation from being champions and title favourites to a side in the lower third of the table.
[Podcast: Previewing Tottenham v Chelsea and why Leicester need to beat Man United]
Chelsea can cite the indications that Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas are returning to form, or that they have regained defensive solidity. They can mention the muscle and menace Nemanja Matic is starting to show again or that Diego Costa ended a 603-minute scoring drought against Norwich last week.
They can refer to a last month that, even in defeat at Stoke City, has contained better performances.
Yet the reality is that Tottenham, unbeaten in 12 league matches, represent a true test, and Chelsea have failed most of those this season. They have played nine league games against the teams who began the weekend in the top 11 positions. They have lost seven of them, taking four points from a possible 27.
It is an astonishingly bad record. Mourinho’s teams have often been defined by their prowess against their peers. Perhaps, some might say, they still are: three of their four league wins have come against West Brom, Aston Villa and Norwich, who all reside in the bottom nine spots in the table.
Their lone win against the better teams was against Arsenal, a match disfigured by Costa’s antics. The striker got centre-back Gabriel sent off although, to Chelsea’s consternation, the player who ended up serving a three-match ban was Costa.
[Predictions: Spurs inflict more misery on Chelsea; Man United knock Leicester off top spot]
Yet perhaps that game revealed more about the dynamic between those two clubs, about Arsenal’s psychological frailty and Mourinho’s capacity to beat Arsene Wenger when it matters, than about this season.
And unlike Arsenal, Tottenham have exhibited a fearlessness. It stood them in good stead when they overwhelmed Chelsea 5-3 on New Year’s Day. It is not in their nature to be intimidated. They outran Manchester City when the league leaders lost 4-1 at White Hart Lane.
It should offer cause for concern for Mourinho. Chelsea, too, have been swamped by proponents of a high-speed pressing game. Liverpool’s 3-1 win at Stamford Bridge was reminiscent of some of Tottenham’s triumphs. If a newer breed of manager has brought a different challenge to Mourinho, his side, while scarcely elderly, have been made to look off the pace by younger rivals.
Tottenham have had a draining trip to Azerbaijan for Thursday’s Europa League win over Qarabag, but the onus is on Chelsea to prove they have the energy to compete.
The nature of fallen giants is that they can sometimes string together results in lesser matches before their flaws are exposed again in defining clashes. Think of Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool in 2009/10 or David Moyes’s Manchester United two seasons ago, sides that forever threatened to turn corners but who found only reverse gear at too many pivotal points.
There is a school of thought that, despite the worst start any Premier League champions have made, that Mourinho’s side have more mettle, more quality and more character. Yet, sooner or later, they have to illustrate that. Ending the longest unbeaten run in the division, on enemy territory, would be a suitable start.
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