As the Champions League returns, England's
three clubs could try beating the continental
super powers over the head with wads of
cash from the new £5.1billion ($7.5 billion)
television deal. Or they could just turn to
Jose Mourinho to repeat Chelsea's triumph
in another German city in 2012.
From Munich to Berlin, Chelsea are now
Champions League thoroughbreds.
Mourinho's personal quest to claim the
Premier League title for the first time since
his wins in 2005 and 2006 has obscured his
team's prospects in Europe, where they are
fourth favourites behind Bayern Munich,
Real Madrid and Barcelona.
While the head still says Real can extend
their decima to 11 crowns in Berlin in May,
Chelsea's candidacy looks far stronger than
in their breakthrough year of 2012, when
they finished up with the prize through
sheer stubbornness and tenacity.

The trip to Paris St-Germain, 10 months
after the sides met in last season's quarter-
final, confirms how far Mourinho has taken
Chelsea. The effervescent but often porous
David Luiz is now on the other side, with
£50 million travelling in the opposite
direction into Chelsea's account. In that
same campaign, when Mourinho often
behaved as if his squad had been dumped
on his doorstep, smelling of horse manure,
the first leg in Paris also featured Fernando
Torres, Frank Lampard, Petr Cech as
starting goalkeeper, Andre Schürrle (as a
"false" No.9), and Ramires, who has now
slipped from the starting XI.
Lampard and Cech are Chelsea legends. But
the speed of change since Chelsea lost at the
Parc des Princes is startling. The summer
upgrade brought in/back Diego Costa, Cesc
Fabregas and Thibaut Courtois. A winter
refurb removed Schürrle and Mohamed
Salah in favour of Juan Cuadrado. The
upshot is that Chelsea are as well placed to
win the Champions League this term as the
Premier League, even if the opposition is
stiffer than Manchester City, Manchester
United and Arsenal are domestically. In
these knock-out rounds, no 38-game slog is
required to assert superiority over Pep
Guardiola's Bayern, the Barcelona of Lionel
Messi or the Real of Ronaldo.
Messi's 75 Champions League goals and
Ronaldo's 72 eclipse the eight in 14 fixtures
attributable to Costa. Yet Chelsea's new
super-macho centre-forward was
instrumental in Atletico Madrid's advance
to the final in Lisbon last year and will
display no trace of an inferiority complex if
or when he confronts the first three in the
betting.
When the Champions League shut down for
winter Chelsea were three points clear of
Manchester City. They now lead by seven
points. City drew level when Chelsea lost
5-3 at Tottenham Hotspur but have now
dropped back. Stability is the most salient
feature of Mourinho's second year back at
Stamford Bridge. As Europe roars back into
the picture, Costa (17 goals in 19 league
games) is no longer bound by his domestic
ban for standing on Liverpool's Emre Can,
and Fabregas's hamstring injury is behind
him.
Eden Hazard, meanwhile, coveted by PSG,
has signed a five-year Chelsea contract:
more proof of the new strategic wisdom.
Among Chelsea's other assets is the pleasure
their star players take in being in the same
team as one another. Fabregas and Costa are
a natural marriage of finisher and
provider. Hazard says of Costa: "He is one of
the best three strikers in the world. He can
score at any time, left foot, right foot. He
can be a poacher, or you can play it long to
him. He has everything to take Chelsea to
the highest level. Even the language barrier
is easily overcome. We haven't spoken
much because he doesn't speak English and
I don't speak Spanish much. But we
understand each other on the pitch."
Mourinho wins domestic titles by rote. But
he has his own grander mission in Europe,
where he is a safe bet to become the only
coach to win the European Cup/Champions
League with three different clubs. Even in
the one truly turbulent phase of his career,
at Real Madrid, he reached three
consecutive Champions League semi-finals.
Last year he made it four in a row, with
Chelsea. City and Arsenal will have their
say in the coming weeks as well. We ought,
though, to peruse warily the three market
leaders, as well as Juventus and Atletico,
while acknowledging the poignancy of
Shakhtar Donetsk competing at the heart of
Europe while their real base, in Donetsk,
has been pushed beyond reach by war.
Shakhtar's opponents, Bayern Munich,
eviscerated Hamburg 8-0 at the weekend:
their biggest Bundesliga win for 31 years,
after a supposedly worrying run of only one
league win in three.
Another Messi hat-trick helped Barcelona
(who face City) to a 5-0 win against Levante
and Real left their heavy defeat at Atletico
behind to beat Deportivo La Coruña 2-0,
unconvincingly, but with the timing of a
team who have allowed themselves a
mental holiday before the campaign turns
serious again.
The Premier League's new TV deal was a
thunderflash for the behemoth clubs in
Germany and Spain. In time it may lend
English football untameable financial
power in club football's greatest
competition. Chelsea and Mourinho, though,
are in no need of future riches to throw
down their challenge now.

the summary of all u've written is "Chelsea is tip to beat PSG." learn how to manage things. mismanagement is one of the problems of Jonathan administration.

defemidefemi:
the summary of all u've written is "Chelsea is tip to beat PSG." learn how to manage things. mismanagement is one of the problems of Jonathan administration.

We're not talking politics here bro...besides,i did not force u to read through