Should've, would've, could've. The story of the season. Fortunately, on Saturday, the opportunities wasted only affected the margin of victory rather than the points distribution. And perhaps some minutes for Bertrand Traoré.
"We didn't deserve the heartbeat of the last four minutes. We deserved to be enjoying the last four minutes with a 2-0, 3-0 or 4-0 result, but we couldn't. Once more the relation between how we played and the number of goals we scored wasn't good. We should have scored three, four or five but we didn't. We could cope with the pressure in the last five minutes because it was there, I felt it and the players felt it. We coped well with that and we got a result that we obviously needed very much."
"It's a bit of a relief. I'm not nervous on the bench but you get a bit disappointed with the way things go. After the goal Zouma hit the bar, if he didn't touch the ball it's a goal. Then in the last four minutes you are there and you think that maybe we'd score in our own goal. So, yes, there is a bit of relief but fundamentally I'm happy for the players because they are working well and they deserved it."
-Jose Mourinho; source: Chelsea FC
At times it felt like John Ruddy's legs were guided by a higher power but eventually even all those forces combined were powerless to stop Diego Costa from scoring the crucial and much-needed goal, both in terms of team results and personally for the striker to break out of his scoring slump. Of course, last year's Diego (the one who makes good runs in the box and thinks first and foremost about scoring rather than winning a penalty) probably fills his boots in this one with 2-3 goals at least, but you have to start the resurrection somewhere and a winning goal is a good place to start.
"For every game you don't score you have five kilos more and the pressure is there. In the first half he missed two chances, the second one was a big one, so it was important for him. He's working well, he's a happy guy and tries everything. He's positive. If I had to choose somebody to score the winning goal I would go with him."
"Everything is connected; when you are full of confidence you are fluent in your decisions, you choose well your movements and the number of touches, when to hold, when to keep possession. When you lose confidence you lose that. Yes he can do much better but one goal is very important."
-Jose Mourinho; source: Chelsea FC
And so, the meaty, uninterrupted, make-or-break part of the season is off to a good start. Two away matches follow this coming week before four of five at Stamford Bridge sandwiching a trip to Premier League leaders Leicester City (wait, what?) as we head into the holidays. Plenty more expected wins to add to Saturday's result then.
"We have to go game after game. The fourth position is not an impossible mission. To recover points to teams who are normally in the middle of the table and to catch one of the teams who will have a bit of a collapse for sure, because everybody will have one, is a possible target."
-Jose Mourinho; source: Chelsea FC
It's not over until it's over!