Jose Mourinho quickly dispelled some pre-match fighting talk from Manchester United after his statement first win as Chelsea boss.
Mourinho joined the Blues in June 2004 after winning the Champions League with Porto and became known as ‘The Special One’ thanks to his iconic first press conference.
Chelsea backed up the appointment with around £136million worth of investment on signings a year after Roman Abramovich took over.
Didier Drogba, Petr Cech and Ricardo Carvalho were just three of the big-name arrivals at Stamford Bridge ahead of the 2004/05 season.
However, the then-United defender Mikael Silvestre cast doubt on the spirit of the Chelsea squad in the days before the two sides clashed.
“Even if you buy top international players, you need a spirit in the dressing room,” he via Sky Sports.
“You don’t get that in one month even if you are living and working together 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Chelsea cast this sentiment aside though as they ran out 1-0 winners at home courtesy of Eidur Gudjohnsen’s goal after 15 minutes.
Mourinho had therefore got off to a dream start with the Blues and was not shy to declare Silvestre’s words as incorrect afterwards.
“When Silvestre said we haven’t got the time to create a big team spirit, he was wrong,” he said as per The Guardian.
“We were a team mentally today, and we had to win this match because of the three points we get against our direct opponent.
“And I think we deserved them because of the team spirit.”
Victory sparked Chelsea’s Premier League title winning campaign in which they lost just once and conceded only 15 goals – a record that still stands today.
The Blues also won the reverse fixture against United 3-1 at Old Trafford and went on to finish 18 points clear of them at the top of the table.
Chelsea’s league title triumph, their first in 50 years, accompanied their League Cup to help start a hugely successful relationship with Mourinho.
They retained their Premier League crown the following season before winning another League Cup and the FA Cup in 2007.
Mourinho left early on in the 2007/08 campaign but returned in 2013 for a second spell following stints at Inter Milan and Real Madrid.
Chelsea won their third Premier League title with him in 2015, as well as another League Cup, before he departed again later that year.
He returned to management in 2016 at United, who host Chelsea on Sunday just two days after they announced the pending arrival of Ruben Amorim as their new head coach.
Red Devils fans will be hoping the highly-rated Portuguese coach will follow in his countryman’s footsteps and have a similarly rapid impact at his new team.
