Runaway league leaders may have a point to prove. It isn't often that can be said. Yet such is the nature of Chelsea's season that it may be true.
Seven points clear, with a game in hand and a fixture list that shows meetings with Leicester City, Crystal Palace, West Bromwich Albion and Sunderland to come, they don’t need to beat Manchester United on Saturday, just as they don’t need to beat Arsenal the following week or Liverpool in May.
They can afford to draw all three and still become champions. The fact they have only lost three of their 47 games this season suggests it is possible: they are enviably hard to beat. Yet they may go down in history as a team that won the war, but not the major battles.
Given Jose Mourinho's past as an outstanding big-match manager, especially during his years in the Premier League, that is unusual.
Yet the facts suggest that, with the extraordinary exception of the 5-3 New Year’s Day defeat at Tottenham, the Portuguese has stifled and stopped rivals, but not seen his side prove destructive enough.
It is not as simple as saying Chelsea do not win high-pressure games against the better teams. They eventually saw off Liverpool in an epic League Cup semi-final and comfortably defeated Tottenham in the final.
But the last Chelsea team to win the league, Carlo Ancelotti’s class of 2010, recorded home-and-away league wins against each of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United. Mourinho’s current collective have only triumphed in one of their four games against the rest of the top four – Arsenal, as ever, were their victims – and failed to beat Paris Saint-Germain in either leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.
Include encounters with Liverpool, Southampton and Tottenham, Chelsea have only taken 14 points from nine league games against the top seven. Versus the lesser lights, however, they have been ruthless, as a return of 59 points from a possible 66 shows. The only slip-ups came in the defeat at Newcastle United, the stalemate at Sunderland and the home draw with Burnley which Mourinho blamed on referee Martin Atkinson.
They have been efficient against inferiors, but have had a capacity to concede equalisers against their peers. It was particularly costly when PSG levelled three times over their 210-minute marathon. If that felt out of character for a Mourinho team, there is a recurring theme.
Manchester City twice went behind to Chelsea, but lost neither game. United equalised in October, courtesy of Robin van Persie’s injury-time goal. Liverpool drew level in both the league and the League Cup, even if neither goal ultimately counted for anything.
Chelsea can cite mitigating factors. They have had a habit of being weakened for major matches. Diego Costa missed October’s clash with United and January’s meeting with City. He is absent again. His understudy Loic Remy might be, too.
Others are available but below par: Oscar, in particular, has lost form and Chelsea are a lesser attacking force than they were when they began the season with a flurry of goals.
Factor in United’s recent run of six straight wins, three of them emphatic defeats of elite opponents, and the possibility victory would give Louis van Gaal’s side a psychological advantage in next year’s title race and, from a pragmatic perspective, another draw would be a fine result.
But in a season without a defining result, a win would amount to categorical proof of why they have been England’s outstanding side this season. It would not quite be a coronation, but it would show why the team from the King’s Road will claim the throne.
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