Soccer: Jose Mourinho is like a permanent hallucination to the other major clubs. The Manchester United players who found him waiting to shake their hands before kick-off in Wednesday's League Cup semi-final were sheepish or puzzled.

All rival clubs know the feeling. They, too, cannot believe the way the Chelsea manager keeps popping up, acting briefly as if he is the proprietor of Old Trafford and, week by week, looking as if he owns the Premiership as well.

Mourinho has avoided feuds with his counterparts. Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger will resemble a crotchety old couple in the background if he goes on being successful. Sooner or later the major clubs will have to decide what is to be done about him.

To begin with, they have to shed their preconceptions over what is possible. A bad refereeing decision, a terrible draw in the FA Cup or just a bungling performance could derail Chelsea, but the London club's hope of the quadruple is not to be written off lightly. Mourinho himself, who now has a League Cup final with Liverpool in Cardiff on February 27th, will not dismiss it entirely.

"The mission is done only at the end of the season if we have a trophy," he said. "I hope that trophy is the Premiership. That's my aim. The Premiership is more significant for me personally and for the club. I think the Premier League is won by the best team. That's not the case in the Champions League. When you go to the knockout stage it depends on moments. You need a bit of luck."

Chelsea, even so, can be more confident than most because they know the level of performance they are able to reach. That dependability is forcing everyone to reconsider time-honoured expectations.

United, proud of their vigour over the latter part of a campaign, are realising that they can no longer afford to be so tolerant of an indifferent start to the season. The wait for Chelsea to oblige by having the traditional "bad patch" is an exercise in bitter futility.

"I know what English football is in terms of difficult opponents," said Mourinho, "but I trust my work and that of those around me."

The Stamford Bridge side are making United and Arsenal review their attitudes on the pitch. Neither have been rigorous enough in their concern with defending.

Ferguson's players did set a club record with eight consecutive clean sheets, but the unreliability of the statistic was soon glaring in Chelsea's 2-1 win. Mourinho had pinpointed a weakness and was as relentless as ever in preying upon it.

Didier Drogba persistently pulled out wide, delivering one pass for the visitors' opener and providing another from which Arjen Robben might have extended the lead. As Mourinho well knew, the remainder of the United side do not cover well when someone such as Drogba has pulled the defenders out of position. With Rio Ferdinand caught in no-man's-land for the first goal, neither Roy Keane nor anyone else responded to Frank Lampard's burst into the box.

Earlier still, with the game barely begun, the Chelsea midfielder had also been at liberty in the penalty area, firing wide from a Damien Duff cut-back.

Ferguson is trying to address this issue. It is one of the main reasons he now prefers a two-tier midfield, but his men do not operate the system well enough. Keane, waning after half an hour when asked to complete his second match in five days, could not make it work single-handed.

Ferguson reverted to a more popular formation when he brought on a second forward in Wayne Rooney, but the immediate effect was to leave even more gaping spaces into which Drogba, Robben and Duff could move. United were exasperated to lose to a Duff free-kick to which the back four and goalkeeper reacted so tentatively, but Chelsea might have crushed them long before that.

It is not in the nature of the Old Trafford club or Ferguson himself to attempt the rather academic style favoured by Chelsea, but the romantic approach is no longer enough. Much as their barnstorming efforts made for a terrific tie, United were too weak in defence and too ineffectual in attack until the very late stages when they whipped up passionate, energetic attacks.

It is an issue Ferguson must address immediately as they face into a month which will make or break their season in both England and Europe.

Ferguson has an excellent squad, but Mourinho, who inherited half of his first team, has been far quicker in fitting his men into a pattern and ensuring they carry out their duties slavishly.

The Stamford Bridge side have little romance about them and no one wishes to see them challenged in the years ahead by a little group of mini-Chelseas.

Nonetheless, Ferguson and Wenger will have to devise a strategy that makes their teams as meticulous as Mourinho's.

Guardian Service