For once, Jose Mourinho had refused to bow to hyperbole, simply sticking to one simple phrase when he remarked that his Inter Milan team was “the best team by far,” after its 1-0 victory over Chelsea. On the evidence of those two matches, it would be a hard claim to dispute as Inter Milan came, saw, and conquered Chelsea with two coolly clinical displays built on the sterling defensive work of Lucio and Walter Samuel and the creative dexterity of Wesley Sneijder. Inevitably, given the manner of the defeat, much has been written and spoken about Chelsea’s deficiencies. Yet even after the

most crushing of defeats, some manner of clarity is required to enable the best conclusions be reached. This Chelsea team was deprived of four of its probable starters in Michael Essien, Ashley Cole, Petr Cech, and Jose Bosingwa—all absentees who would affect even the best teams. Plus, given the roughhouse nature of some of the Inter Milan marking, they could argue they were on the wrong end of some rather mystifying referee decisions for the second year running in the Champions League. Yet to his credit, Carlo Ancelotti refused to reach for excuses and simply admitted, "Inter played a very good game with a good counter attack. We didn't play how we wanted, so Inter deserved to win. Congratulations to Inter." Given the nature of the defeat, both in...(Read Full Article)