4) This Chelsea team can still improve

Chelsea’s dominance this season has been plain for all to see. They have topped the division for 274 days, are the only club in the 92 to remain unbeaten at home all term and have eclipsed their nearest challengers by eight points having actually claimed the title three weeks ago. Yet the sight of eight members of the side who had won this club’s first championship in half a century lining up on the turf prior to kick-off had offered a reminder that the current team, perhaps terrifyingly for their nearest challengers, remains a work in progress.
José Mourinho has built a dominant team in these parts before. There, on the pitch, were William Gallas, Alexei Smertin, Carlo Cudicini, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Claude Makélélé, Geremi, Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Carvalho, to be joined by Didier Drogba, Petr Cech and John Terry from the current squad, all celebrating that first success a decade on. Not all of those were Mourinho signings, but they revelled under his stewardship to take Chelsea back to the pinnacle. “Now that team of 2005 is over, finished,” said the manager. “Only John and Petr are still at the club now that Didier has gone. I belong to two generations. To have come back [last season] for the end of my team was hard. To see Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Michael Essien leave, and now Didier, is very hard for me. But my job is Chelsea’s future, and that is this team that we’ve been developing the last few years.”
The likes of Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois, César Azpilicueta, Diego Costa, Nemanja Matic, Oscar, even Cesc Fàbregas – not to mention the cream of the youth players who emerged at half-time on Sunday to show off the three trophies they have claimed this term – can only emerge stronger from this campaign. They will attack next season with as much relish, determined to retain their trophy and make proper inroads into the Champions League. Mourinho set them a challenge post-match: to follow up this success with a similar haul to that achieved by his first side at this club. “That’s what makes the difference between someone who is a champion and ’the champions’,” he added. The chasing pack should beware. Dominic Fifield