You will have no doubt seen the headlines about Mourinho calling the 3-0 a "fake" scoreline, though it should be said that taking that phrase out of the context in which it's presented will certainly paint a much more delusional picture than what a cool, calm, and collected Jose painted after the match on Sunday.
"The best team in the second half was Chelsea for sure. We had a difficult first half, we didn't create a lot and our goalkeeper made a few important saves."
"Second half everything was different. If the 1-0 was a doubtful result at minute 70, 3-0 is completely fake. At 1-0 Chelsea were the best team for the whole second half."
"They make a change because they feel 1-0 is in danger and we concede a second goal. If 1-1 a different story, their team is in trouble. Their decision to bring on (centre-back) Martin Demichelis is an intelligent change, the sort of change I get criticised for all the time."
"Their midfield was in trouble, probably they should finish the game with nine men. In the end I have to be happy with the second half we did. That is not enough to win the game."
-Jose Mourinho; source: Mirror
We can often pinpoint critical turning points in a 90-minute game, and there were several in this one. Certainly, if Aguero scores more than just the one goal he finally managed in the first half — several immense saves from Asmir Begovic kept him at bay — we don't have to worry about who was better in the second half. It could've easily been 3-0 at the break.
But it wasn't. And from that point on, for my money, Chelsea did play markedly better. City sat back and looked to counter — a hilarious development, considering Pellegrini's pre-match words about entertaining football and parked buses — and we failed to bring proceedings to level terms only because of a linesman's incompetence and Eden Hazard's even greater incompetence at finishing the best, easiest chance of match.
Most crucially, City did not make any major mistakes. Same can't be said for Chelsea.
"They were the best team in the first half, they controlled the game and created chances. We were comfortable on the ball but defensively we were quite fragile."
"I'm the first one to be disappointed when all week you are speaking about movements, directions of the game, mechanisms, Aguero's runs and positions, wingers coming from the outside to the inside, and then after 10 seconds he [Aguero] is in the face of Begovic. We were defensively poor in the first half."
-Jose Mourinho; source: Chelsea FC
There's a sense that John Terry is taking the brunt of the blame for our defensive failings, which is probably not wrong. Certainly, neither center back covered himself in glory in the first half, though it was the Captain who got the hook at half time, for the first time ever in the Premier League under Mourinho.
"I had to decide on John or Cahill because Zouma is the fastest player we have in our defensive line. When you are going to play with a high block and you are asking your players to do that, the fastest player has to be on the pitch."
"The point was not to bring John out but to bring Zouma in. I wanted to have my fastest player on the pitch and not on the bench because I knew they would play counter attack and long balls into Aguero. I knew I wanted my team to be dominant and to play in the opposition half."
"I'm the one that plays John every game, made him captain, brought him back from a difficult situation with other managers. I'm the one who has the right to look at the game and say I want Zouma on the pitch. I was losing 1-0, in minute 35 I was trying to anticipate what I was going to say to the players, and ask the players at half-time, and immediately I had Zouma warming up because it was clear to me he had to play."
-Jose Mourinho; source: Chelsea FC
That our defense was so porous in the first half, when our intent was to play a low block, is the troubling part here of course. That's supposed to be our forte!
We'll find out whether Terry's substitution ends up proving something more meaningful in the long run. For now, there's no doubt that he will go back to training, and work twice as hard. We all know the day's coming when he won't be good enough to the first-choice center back, but we also know that he will fight as hard as he can for his place until that day.
"I can tell you that [Terry] was not dancing in the dressing room. And I can tell you also that he was not having a bad reaction. He did what everybody does – they all do the same. They wait for the team to go out, they change or they shower and they go back to the bench – like he did."
-Jose Mourinho; source: Get West London
And we'll need all the motivation from the squad that we can get. The season ahead may be a long one, but we shouldn't want any longer to actually get it started.
"One point from six is better than zero and worse than two. I am okay in mathematics, multiply 36 by three and I know how much it gives, I know the championship is more than mathematically open."
-Jose Mourinho; source: Inside Futbol