And so ended Chelsea's unbeaten record, at St James' Park, with Papiss Cisse the man to put Jose Mourinho's aspirations of matching the Arsenal "invincibles" 49 games without defeat.

Rik Sharma

Except Mourinho never held those aspirations. And neither did his players. Or even the supporters.

"They don't know the record. I wouldn't know, only you tell me 20 times," answered Mourinho when the tired subject was brought up ahead of Chelsea's game against Newcastle.

An unbeaten record doesn't interest managers like Mourinho. What he wants is silverware.

And the people who are gloating about Chelsea failing to continue their unbeaten run of 23 games should know that better than anyone, because they are the same people that complain about Mourinho's methods.

He is a manager who is perfectly happy to sacrifice aesthetics for success.

If asked whether in a string of 10 games he'd rather win five and draw five (20 points), or win seven and lose three (21 points), Mourinho would go for the latter. Most sane people would.

An unbeaten record is a trinket. It could be a cherry on a cake. In terms of Arsenal's 2003-04 season, it was just that. It added a sheen to a good season.

But the subsequent year, Chelsea won the league and although his team lost one game, they recorded more points than the Arsenal team of the season before.

In theory, you could go unbeaten the entire season, drawing all of your games, and get relegated.

Unbeaten runs make good headlines. The "invincibles" will live long in the memory, particularly for Arsenal fans, who in the bitter, near decade-long drought they suffered after that trophy, fetishised that season.

Mourinho won't be happy with Chelsea's defeat by Newcastle.

Not because the string of games unbeaten is over, but because Eden Hazard disappeared after 30 minutes. Because Cesc Fabregas is suspended for the next match. Because he has a problem with his full-backs; Azpilicueta finds it hard to attack confidently on the left.

There are plenty of reasons for Mourinho to mull over the result at St James' Park on Saturday morning, but losing a meaningless record is not one of them.