If only they could play Chelsea every week. Manchester City capitalised on their routine 3-0 demolition of West Bromwich Albion on matchday one in the Premier League by doing similar to Jose Mourinho's bedraggled Blues. On the evidence of it, Chelsea are closer to West Brom than they are to City, despite what the manager might say about it.
"If 1-0 was a doubtful result at minute 70, 3-0 is completely fake," Mourinho spat to Sky Sports. "At 1-0 Chelsea were the best team for the whole second half.
"They make a change because they feel 1-0 is in danger and we concede a second goal. If 1-1 a different story, their team is in trouble."
Nonsense. City are setting a standard that might already be unachievable for the chasing pack. If this is how they deal with Chelsea, their title rivals at the start of the season, then what might be in store for Watford next week? This is a superb team playing exquite football and all the pieces slotted together in a profound, statement-making display against last season's Premier League champions.
Segio Aguero was afforded three or four clear chances to get his eye in before finally rolling the ball past Asmir Begovic for the opening goal. The ease with which he palmed off Cahill all afternoon will only expedite Mourinho's quest to bring in John Stones from Everton.
David Silva, the type of player Mourinho teams usually excel in snuffing out, found as much space as he needed. The gap between defence and midfield was all too big for Chelsea and the Spaniard profited; offering passes to Aguero and an assist to Kompany.
Raheem Sterling had Branislav Ivanovic exactly where he wanted him; while he lost out on the physical side to the Serb, his nippiness in attack meant he could go past the full back at will. Fernandinho dominated the midfield landscape and fired home the third.
Jose Mourinho can scarcely offer an excuse for this one, as he did last week in shifting the focus onto Jon Fearn and Eva Carneiro when his team conceded two to draw at Stamford Bridge against Swansea. The defeat here completes Jose's worst-ever start to a season as Chelsea manager.
Other than the 2006-07 campaign, when they lost to Middlesbrough on matchday two, Chelsea under the Portuguese had won their first two games of every Premier League season. Not so this time around.
Something is fundamentally broken. They are already five points behind City. Mourinho revealed that after a truncated pre-season campaign that his side might not be fully fit until after the fourth league game. By then it will be far, far too late.
There is a toxicity about Chelsea this week, in the wake of the Carneiro affair, which was referenced too by the City support when the replacement physio-doctor duo of Steven and Chris Hughes were summoned to treat Gary Cahill late in the first half.
Seconds later and they were upfield tending to Diego Costa who had been jostled heavily by Vincent Kompany. That, ironically, left Chelsea with eight outfield players on a counter-attack, the very offence Mourinho used to dispense with Carniero and Fearn for their perceived lack of understanding of football.
Here, it was more illustrative of the fact that Chelsea were being battered, both physically and on a technical front too. City played like a dream.
For Mourinho, the nightmare continues.
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