Chelsea 1 Basel 2: It is barely two months into José Mourinho's second coming but, already, any fanciful hopes that the Portuguese would wave his magic wand and right all that was wrong in these parts have been dispelled.
The last time he had overseen the home side in this arena Chelsea had been held by unfancied opponents from Norway, were booed off and he had been sacked within 48 hours. Six years on and, pitted against a Basel team who had never previously won in England, his return yielded an even more damaging result.
Marco Streller’s near-post header from a corner eight minutes from time, Gary Cahill having been inadvertently obstructed by Samuel Eto’o to lose the striker amid the six-yard box clutter, condemned the London side to a first Champions League defeat at home in the group stage in almost 10 years and 30 matches.
This felt horribly wasteful, a position of apparent authority surrendered so carelessly and even the flurry of late chances created utterly unconvincing. Mourinho departed down the tunnel with head bowed. A fourth game without a win ensured initiative has been lost early in the section. It will take some recovering even from here.
All that talk of nurturing “beautiful, young eggs” in the build-up, with Mourinho having pledged to select a quartet of players 22 or under, had turned out to be exaggerated at best. The manager had resisted flinging all four of his younger charges – albeit each of them a full international – from the outset, with three included instead.
More pointedly, the average age of the starting line-up was actually almost 28, a figure admittedly swollen by Frank Lampard’s inclusion as captain. There may be a long-term vision at this club, but this is not a side overflowing with youthful exuberance. Those being introduced are, quite sensibly, making their mark with plenty of older, more experienced heads around them. Given the improvement already clear in the likes of Oscar this season, it is a tactic that is paying off.
Not that this was straightforward. Chelsea may have led at the break, but they had rarely been fluent and, had the Brazilian not registered on the stroke of half-time, the hosts may have departed to grumbling frustration. This remains a group growing accustomed to each other’s company.
While Marco van Ginkel made his first start patrolling central midfield – one shuddering early challenge on Giovanni Sio in particular set the tone – Eto’o, on his home debut, bustled in the lone forward brief, his movement clever enough but his reactions strangely rusty for someone who had been parachuted in from a Russian league in full swing.
Eden Hazard and another debutant, Willian, sensed joy against their respective full backs, the Brazilian tormenting a hapless Behrang Safari through the opening exchanges. But, even so, the initial burst of adrenaline rather fizzled out, invention draining away and the home side running aground on massed ranks of industrious Swiss. It took almost half an hour for the home side to muster a shot, and even then Hazard’s attempt flew rather desperately high and wide into the Shed end.
Basel were growing more assured, gaining confidence from their apparent central solidity, with Valentin Stocker clever in the pass when relieving the pressure and Mohamed Salah, a scorer in the Europa semi-final between these sides here back in April, a menace when allowed to run.
The winger teased even Ashley Cole, scurrying regularly into space beyond the full back. Had he allied better judgment in his final pass or shot, Chelsea might have been exposed. As it was, they retired with a lead upon which to cling.
As the Swiss contemplated half-time satisfaction, David Luiz was permitted to amble forward, Lampard collected possession and slipped a pass inside Safari, and Oscar’s first-time finish back across Yann Sommer was supremely accurate.
The 22-year-old enjoys this stage having scored twice against Juventus in last season’s opening group game, even if his first campaign in England had only gone on to offer glimpses of his undoubted ability. There is a muscularity to Oscar’s game that will appeal to Mourinho, a creator who can also shield or even claim back the ball, and has effectively elevated him to first-choice No 10 ahead of Juan Mata this term.
It is the skill that catches the eye more often, his natural ability neatly encapsulated in the collection, touch and shot which arced on to the crossbar from just outside the corner of the penalty area after the interval. He repeated the trick moments later, as if to prove it had been no fluke, only for an opponent to deflect the shot narrowly wide. Sommer was static and helpless on each occasion.
The playmaker was dominating Chelsea’s forays forward by then, slipping passes to Hazard or Willian at ease. Having mustered so little, Basel’s first coherent passing exchange of the second period sliced the home side apart, the ball transferred slickly from left to right before Salah guided a wonderful curled finish beyond Petr Cech and into the corner.
Mourinho’s shoulders slumped as his team cursed their inability to muster an interception. Their mood would darken yet further before the end. This was a nightmarish start in a group that had initially seemed a formality.
(Guardian Service)
