Mourinho has serious matters to mull over

Champions League/Chelsea v Barcelona: In his programme notes for the match with Barcelona Jose Mourinho gave his list of the potential winners of this season's Champions League. It comprised the visitors to Stamford Bridge, Chelsea themselves, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Milan and Internazionale.

The holders of the trophy, Liverpool, and Arsenal were scorned by omission, although the article must have gone to press before the victory for Arsene Wenger's side at the Bernabeu had any chance to sway opinion. Now, however, it is the inclusion of Chelsea's name that is the most debatable aspect of all.

Having been beaten 2-1 on Wednesday by Barcelona, the likelihood is that they will be absent from the roll call of the quarter-finalists. For the first time since he came to England, Mourinho has serious matters to mull over.

The manager argues that his side have been equipped to deal with Barcelona, both this season and last, whenever he enjoys a full complement of players on the field. Nonetheless, the team has come to look humdrum.

There is a seeming paradox to that in view of the commanding lead in the Premiership, but to compare Chelsea to a stodgy Liverpool, a slight Manchester United or a transitional Arsenal is not to hold them to the most stringent standards.

Everything is accelerated at Stamford Bridge and, well short of Mourinho's second anniversary in London, there have been signs of staleness. He has had reason to lambast the squad for defeats at Real Betis and Middlesbrough and, unimportant as it was considered at the time, a home loss to Charlton on penalties in the League Cup after holding the lead has come to seem evocative of jaded minds.

Before the dismissal of Asier del Horno on Wednesday, it had probably been part of Chelsea's plan to sit deep and absorb Barcelona's pressure. They did so successfully, but there was a marked absence of any wit or incisiveness on the break.

Though Frank Rijkaard's line-up included more security measures than it had last year, there ought still have been weaknesses to be exploited. Someone like Hernan Crespo, with his skill at outwitting wonky offside traps, never received a suitable pass.

It was aggression and boldness that rocked Barcelona, when Mourinho sent his undermanned team out to attack the surprised visitors at the start of the second half. An opener for Chelsea, though, liberated Rijkaard's team, making it imperative for them to unleash their artistry.

Considering Lionel Messi's shot against the bar, Henrik Larsson's miss with a header and two good penalty claims, there could have been half-a-dozen goals for Barcelona over the course of the night.

Mourinho, in public, would blame virtually everything on Terje Hauge's decision to show Del Horno a red card in the 38th minute and the club's fans seem to be unanimous in their horror at the referee's ruling. The offence, it is true, might have met with a booking instead, but the left-back was an unsympathetic sort of victim.

He had already had a boot at Messi's knee and in the key incident itself there was no convincing attempt to take the ball as he slammed into the teenager. So far as simulation goes, the Spaniard then outdid the teenager as he sprawled on the turf and, presumably, played for time. Hauge was not to be dissuaded.

Del Horno's greatest problem had lain in the fact that he was out of his depth. Messi will demoralise many more markers in the seasons to come but a Spain left-back ought to cope with more resourcefulness. So far Del Horno, bought from Athletic Bilbao for £8 million, has been a poor acquisition.

Unable to put Rijkaard's side under pressure for long, Chelsea ensured the sheen of quality would all be Barcelona's.

The hard-headedness of Mourinho's planning turned into a limitation and though his side, given a few breaks, could win the Champions League one year or other, they are not yet good enough to dominate the Continent as Roman Abramovich would have wished. Flair is not always an affectation and Chelsea needed far more of it than they possessed if they were to fight the pure flame of Barcelona's approach with fire of their own.

The La Liga champions are, admittedly, an anomaly and no one else who bids for prizes has such a devotion to aesthetics but they will be around for a while, so Chelsea and others must reckon with them. As if Ronaldinho and Messi were not enough, Mourinho could furnish his men with no answer either to Deco, who was once his player at Porto.

It all looks too late for this season, but if Chelsea are to prevail in future he may have to accept that there can be occasions at the highest level when a virtuoso is an absolute necessity rather than a luxury.

Guardian Service