Sarri matches Mourinho in unbeaten start to Premier League season

An impressive attacking performance from Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea on Sunday afternoon, delivering a 4-0 paddling to Burnley, saw the Blues not only move temporarily into second place in the table, two behind Liverpool and one ahead of Manchester City who play on Monday, but match a mark set by José Mourinho in his last two Premier League titles with Chelsea.

Sarri already set a new mark last weekend for number of matches unbeaten to start his Chelsea tenure with nine, now he’s made it ten in a row, which is something that only Mourinho has ever accomplished in Chelsea history before today. The Special One did it twice, in 2005-06 and 2014-15, winning the Premier League each time.

(NB.: In the most impressive 2004-05 season, a pesky loss to Manchester City in the ninth match proved to be the only loss of the league season, which shows the trivial nature of such statistics.)

Mourinho’s unbeaten starts lasted 11 and 14 matches, respectively, and Chelsea lead the league pretty much from wire-to-wire in both of those seasons. That’s not exactly the case for Chelsea right now, with both Liverpool and Manchester City enjoying unbeaten starts to the season as well. But as long as Sarri’s Chelsea remain unbeaten, we can make it a three-horse race well into the season.