Jose Mourinho Needs Impressive Start to Compete for EPL Title in 2013

Jose Mourinho may not want to follow in the footsteps of Roberto Di Matteo in his second stint with Chelsea, but he will need to replicate his early-season success to compete for an EPL title. 

In the Blues' last campaign, Di Matteo led the club to an impressive start in the first two months of the EPL schedule. The club collected seven wins and a draw before losing their first EPL match against Manchester United on October 28. 

From there, the wheels really came off for Di Matteo. Draws with Swansea City, Liverpool and a loss to West Brom coupled with a Champions League loss to Juventus highlighted a poor run that led to Di Matteo's demise. 

This time, getting off to a dominant start will be a tougher task—but one that would set up a run at the Premier League title. 

Here's a look at the full 2013-14 slate for the club, per Chelsea's website. 

Date	Opponent	Home/Road
Aug. 17	Hull City	Home
Aug. 24	Manchester United	Road
Aug. 31	Aston Villa	Home
Sept. 14	Everton	Road
Sept. 21	Fulham	Home
Sept. 28	Tottenham	Road
Oct. 5	Norwich City	Road
Oct. 19	Cardiff City	Home
Oct. 26	Manchester City	Home
Nov. 2	Newcastle	Road
Nov. 9	West Bromwich Albion	Home
Nov. 23	West Ham United	Road
Nov. 30	Southampton	Home
Dec. 3	Sunderland	Road
Dec. 7	Stoke City	Road
Dec. 14	Crystal Palace	Home
Dec. 21	Arsenal	Road
Dec. 26	Swansea City	Home
Dec. 28	Liverpool	Home
Jan. 1	Southampton	Road
Jan. 11	Hull City	Road
Jan. 18	Manchester United	Home
Jan. 29	West Ham United	Home
Feb. 1	Manchester City	Road
Feb. 8	Newcastle	Home
Feb. 11	West Bromwich Albion	Road
Feb. 22	Everton	Home
March 1	Fulham	Road
March 8	Tottenham	Home
March 15	Aston Villa	Road
March 22	Arsenal	Home
March 29	Crystal Palace	Road
April 5	Stoke City	Home
April 12	Swansea City	Road
April 19	Sunderland	Home
April 26	Liverpool	Road
May 3	Norwich City	Home
May 11	Cardiff City	Road

If the Blues can escape without a loss until October 28 in this campaign, they'll be in great shape to compete for the title.

In the last 15 games of the season, the Blues get eight opponents that were either in the bottom half of the table last campaign or newly promoted. Of the opponents that are in the top 10, only two (West Brom on Feb. 11 and Liverpool on Aug. 26) will take place away from the Bridge. 

With almost every difficult challenge at home and plenty of teams that Chelsea should be heavily favored against, the schedule lends itself to a strong finish for Mourinho. The key will be getting off to a hot start. 

Getting off to that good start will be on Mourinho. After taking over the club on June 3, he has a short time to bring in the transfers he wants and put his system into place. 

Mourinho already brought in German forward Andre Schurrle, and other rumors have been swirling around the club including a possible Juan Mata exit (via the Daily Mail). It's clear that he's not afraid to leave his stamp on the club as soon as possible. 

He'll need to hit the ground running, though. Chelsea's campaign depends on a good start.