It was perhaps appropriate that the team ground down by Chelsea to confirm a first league title in five years were Crystal Palace. Retreat to March 2014, that John Terry own-goal at Selhurst Park and a defeat which left Gary Cahill close to tears; José Mourinho had sat post-match in the rickety main stand and publicly doubted the personality of some in his squad. There was a core upon whom he could rely but too many others were prone to “disappear”. He listed similar contests lost at Stoke and Newcastle, Everton and West Bromwich Albion, and scribbled down on a scrap of paper what his number lacked. It read simply “Balls”.

The team who claimed the Premier League at a sun-drenched Stamford Bridge on Sunday, the blue streamers fluttering down on full-time as this corner of the capital erupted in joyous celebration, proclaim the qualities that side had so lacked. They have a blend of steel and snarl, are streetwise and shrewd when they have to be and can bludgeon as often as they scintillate. They are far more of a Mourinho team than that which had wilted on occasion last season and no rival, for all the flurries of victories summoned in a game of catch-up, can match the relentless consistency – two league defeats in 35 games and a solitary one in cup competitions all campaign – this team have mustered.

Club, manager and owner up high in the West stand had good reason to reflect on the metamorphosis with pride as their project yielded reward. The trophy celebrated with such gusto here is the result of long-term planning. “If we don’t [win the league] but show an evolution in the first season, show we’re moving in the right direction, we’ll be champions in the second season,” the returning manager had said at his inaugural press conference in June 2013. Those words seemed like typical Mourinho bluster at the time, though they have since been proved prophetic. “Last season we were building something,” he said once Palace had been beaten. “This season there was work ethic, group ethic and a few players we brought here gave us qualities we didn’t have before.”



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The manager’s blueprint was shaped by his experiences over the first half of last season as he gauged first-hand, occasionally with dismay, the Europa League-winning team he had inherited. Allied to Mourinho’s tactical tweaks, this club’s has been a calculated strategy, forged on efficient, ruthless recruitment within the restrictive nature of financial fair play, generating funds through sales in order to secure the spine required to sustain a proper challenge.



The willingness to re-sign Nemanja Matic from Benfica in the January of 2014, despite the £21m fee effectively serving as an admission the Serb had been sold for a pittance to the Portuguese, was bold. The same could be said for the sale of the two-times player of the year, Juan Mata, that month and the fans’ favourite David Luiz last summer. The fees may have been eye-catching but both departures – unlike those of the likes of Romelu Lukaku and Kevin de Bruyne – were surprising. Hindsight shines a kinder light on those decisions, particularly in the context of the replacements.

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While others have dawdled or haggled, Chelsea’s transfer business has been decisive. Mourinho’s principal gripe last term was up front where Fernando Torres and the stop-gaps, Samuel Eto’o and Demba Ba, were blunt. Diego Costa, a player who had come close to joining Liverpool from Atlético Madrid the previous year and whose agent, Jorge Mendes, boasts Mourinho as another of his clients, was identified early.



The forward needed some persuasion to swap La Liga for England but, with the £32m buy-out clause met, he was persuaded to come. The goals he scored up to Christmas arguably set the tone, the team benefiting from a focal point up front in a player born to play in this league. There have been hamstring injuries aplenty and Costa may not feature again until August but his presence transmitted confidence. Chelsea were stronger with him in their ranks, his name bellowed to the rafters when he appeared in jeans and a replica shirt to join in the post-match celebrations. Successive titles in Spain and England serve as an illustration of his quality.



Mourinho had met Cesc Fàbregas in person, missing his son’s final youth-team game of the season for Fulham, to convince the Spaniard to return to London. He has been the conveyor-belt of assists, the creative hub in central midfield. For roughly the same fee as that which saw Lukaku depart, and even with his slight dip in form over recent months, his arrival was a masterstroke. These were the manager’s recommendations, as outlined in the report submitted to the board only 24 hours after the last-day victory at Cardiff, being implemented. There were other arrivals but contrast that strengthening with the lavish if rather haphazard approach at Manchester United or the £55m plus spent by Manchester City on Fernando, Eliaquim Mangala and Wilfredo Caballero. Arsenal did wonderfully well to secure Alexis Sánchez from Barcelona but Arsène Wenger’s squad still showed potential deficiencies in central defence and midfield. Chelsea always seemed more complete.

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The regulars, and there have been 13 players with more than 20 league appearances this season, have accepted the demands placed on them by the management. Mourinho was the likeliest appointment in the summer of 2013 to guarantee success, a coach who knew the landscape at this club and has claimed titles with every major team he has coached. This success means he averages a trophy every 34 games over his career, a staggering record, with as much down to preparation as tactical acumen. In a World Cup year the customary pre-season tour of the Far East or the United States was waived in preference for a more focused yet calmer 10-day spell in Velden, Austria. They will attempt to replicate that again this summer, albeit in Montreal rather than on the Wörthersee.

There were also probably benefits to the early exits from the tournament in Brazil for England and Spain and that Serbia had not even qualified. Matic and Branislav Ivanovic have been outstanding all season. The Brazilian contingent – Oscar, Ramires and Willian – stayed longer at the finals and have been slightly less influential, with the possible exception of the former Shakhtar Donetsk winger Willian, who remains integral. Yet all Mourinho’s players have worked feverishly for him all season, the club’s medical department excelling with their preventive treatments: Terry, a player so hampered by lower-back injuries two years ago, has been an ever-present in the league this term and arguably conjured some of the most authoritative football of his career. Eden Hazard, a player kicked and crunched repeatedly every time he takes to the pitch, is another with 35 league appearances to his name.

The Belgian’s development into a forward willing to track back and defend, rather than focusing merely upon bamboozling opponents at the other end, is another of Mourinho’s triumphs. At the end of last season, after the defeat by Atlético in the Champions League semi-final, Hazard’s contribution had drawn stinging criticism. This season their relationship has appeared stable, the playmaker buying into his manager’s demands and now committed until 2020. The Professional Footballers’ Association player of the year has been the side’s most consistent attacking threat, excelling even when Fàbregas and Costa laboured.

The manager’s reaction to the loss of key performers, either to fitness or disciplinary issues, was to adopt the more pragmatic approach that sparked all those wearisome criticisms of “boring, boring Chelsea”. He, like this team, has the ability to adapt and play either way, and this squad have always had that stingy back-line to fall back on. The back six – including Matic and Thibaut Courtois – can appear unbreachable at times. Palace heaved to break them down in the latter stages here but were still thwarted. Chelsea have trailed for only 171 minutes this season and no other club can match their 17 clean sheets.

If they did benefit from the inadequacies of the chasing pack they still provided the blend and balance required to be champions and should be remembered as worthy winners: a side shrewdly constructed and cannily coached who were head and shoulders above the rest.

The gap of 13 points to second yawns like a chasm and this team will improve again in the summer when their recruitment will be just as judicious. The chasing pack will have their work cut out for some time to come.