Antonio Conte's Chelsea Are Beginning to Mirror Jose Mourinho's Champions

STAMFORD BRIDGE, LONDON — It was mid-October 2004 and Chelsea had just lost 1-0 to Manchester City courtesy of a Nicolas Anelka penalty.

"At half-time, [Jose Mourinho] was livid. It was one of the few times I saw him really angry," John Terry later remembered in his book from the 2004/05 campaign, My Winning Season. This was a new Chelsea, one with an exciting new manager at the helm. They were supposed to be going in a different direction from years gone by, but losing to City in the manner they did raised doubts. It shouldn't have happened.

It was just one defeat in isolation—Chelsea's first all season under Mourinho—yet it highlighted the same problems that got Claudio Ranieri sacked a few months earlier. The Blues weren't clinical enough and losing to a side that was struggling at the other end of the table hinted at a soft underbelly.

If they were to be champions and chase down Arsenal at the top, Chelsea couldn't afford these moments of weakness. Chelsea had to be strong and show they were capable of being consistently merciless, regardless of their opponents.

"Roman Abramovich was gutted after the game," Terry continued. "I don’t think he expected something like that so early in the season. [...] He came into the dressing room and just said 'Why?' There was silence from the players and the staff. It was pretty uncomfortable. I thought then that I didn’t really want to experience that again."

That game didn't win Chelsea the title; get them on the right track, it did, however. Losing to City left Mourinho's side five points behind Arsenal in the table, which seemed like a mountain to climb despite being early in the season. The Gunners were the Invincibles—they hadn't lost a league match during the previous year and were the team to beat. Five points felt like Everest.

While Chelsea had scored just eight goals in their opening nine games, Arsenal had fired home 29. They were averaging over three goals a game to Chelsea's 0.88. They were superior, and the Blues had some significant ground to make up if they were to compete.

Nine games after that Chelsea loss to City, the table told us a different story. It had flipped; the Blues' devastating form had brought about a 10-point swing. From trailing Arsenal by five points in October, Chelsea were heading into Christmas with a five-point cushion at the top.

ADRIAN DENNIS/Getty Images

Mourinho's team had the whole country purring. They were crushing opponents, scoring early and killing them off before the half-time whistle had even blown. It was in that period they won the title; Chelsea set such a ferocious pace that their rivals couldn't compete with it.

Mourinho had seen the failings against City. He addressed them, redefined the formula and made his players into killers.

It's what Antonio Conte is doing now with Chelsea.

The change at Stamford Bridge has happened sooner into the season, but since the humiliation against Arsenal on September 24, Conte's team has been unrecognisable. His 3-4-3 has managers running scared, and so far, none have been able to live with it—not even Mourinho, whose Manchester United were humbled 4-0 a fortnight ago.

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Against Everton this weekend, it said much about Conte's methods that Ronald Koeman changed his system in an attempt to combat Chelsea's formation. Normally 4-2-3-1, the Everton boss sent his players out in a like-for-like 3-4-3, and still it didn't work.

Koeman labelled Chelsea's performance the best he had seen from any team in that formation. He stopped short of suggesting Chelsea can go all the way in the title race, but his admiration for what Conte is achieving so early into his Chelsea reign was clear.

The sheer ruthlessness of the Blues' display to thrash Everton 5-0 echoes those from a decade ago. That first Mourinho side is what fed his legacy in west London. The club feasted on it, enjoying years of success with and without him. When we spoke of Chelsea, it was always in that vision.

Indeed, it was because of Mourinho that Abramovich has sacked so many managers. That 2004/05 season had set the standard, and when managers dipped below it, they paid the price. Even Mourinho did last December when he failed to repeat that level of success.

	P	Pts	GD
Manchester City	6	18	+13
Tottenham Hotspur	6	14	+7
Arsenal	6	13	+8
Liverpool	6	13	+7
Everton	6	13	+6
Manchester United	6	12	+5
Crystal Palace	6	10	+3
Chelsea	6	10	+1

Conte's showing he can live up to it, and the game with Everton proved it. This wasn't one game in isolation—it's happening every week now, and it means we have to take Chelsea seriously again. After their failure last term, we were rightly cautious about showering Conte's side with superlatives early into the current campaign: now we should.

Since that Arsenal loss, they have scored 16 goals without reply in the Premier League. The goal difference has had a major shot in the arm; from just +1, Chelsea now boast +17. At this stage of the season, that speaks of title contenders.

Losing to Arsenal flicked a switch in this Chelsea side. Like the Manchester City defeat in 2004, the tables have suddenly turned. Conte's side were eight points behind Pep Guardiola's City on September 26. Guardiola's side had yet to drop a single point in the league, and we were believing the hype.

The belief was that City were already champions-elect. Guardiola's aura as boss was as significant as Arsenal's Invincibles reputation. It counted for so much early into the season, which meant the eight points that separated City and Chelsea weren't just daunting—they were demoralising.

	P	Pts	GD
Chelsea	11	25	+17
Manchester City	11	24	+15
Arsenal	10	23	+13
Liverpool	10	23	+11
Tottenham Hotspur	10	20	+9
Everton	11	18	+2
Watford	10	15	+1
Manchester United	10	15	+1

Within just five games, Chelsea have done close to what Mourinho's side of 2004/05 did; they've brought about a nine-point swing to sit above City in the Premier League table heading into the international break. If results go their way, they may even be top of the pile for the next fortnight.

Quite how significant this will all prove, we can only wait until the end of the season to find out. Still, if we're looking for signs of how Conte's rebuilding of Chelsea is going, comparisons with Mourinho's team of champions from 2004/05 are apt. That's the generation that all teams live and die by in west London, and as we stand, Conte's men are living up to them at the very least.

Chelsea's last three scorelines at home read 3-0, 4-0 and now 5-0 in their favour. What next for Tottenham Hotspur who visit west London at the end of November?

Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes