Many coaches would feel deeply satisfied if their team were leading 2-0 and every pass brought a chant of "olé" from an exultant crowd. Not Jose Mourinho, though. It summed up the Chelsea manager's outlook that he reacted to precisely that situation by wagging a disapproving finger from the touchline.

Mourinho has nothing against lengthy possession, of course, nor flashes of skill. What he dislikes is "euphoric football". With that, concentration or control can be lost, and the game for him must be ruthless and unemotional. It was not only the wagging finger against Birmingham which showed how strongly he feels about that.

When Joe Cole and Hernan Crespo somehow wasted a chance to put Chelsea two goals ahead, Mourinho responded by booting a container of energy drinks. Later he was so angry to see Cole revert to his old self-indulgent trickery that he threatened to drop him.

"One more match for himself and the public and not for the team and he is out," the manager said.

Mourinho can hardly be accused of abhorring individual talent, given the players in his squad, but whatever the score everything must be applied in the Claude Makelele mould: simply, efficiently and for the team's good. A day after Arsene Wenger said he would not change Arsenal's style to try to close the gap on Chelsea, Mourinho showed there must be no deviation from his beliefs just because they are clear at the top.

The description of Chelsea as a machine is often meant disparagingly, but Mourinho probably takes it as a compliment. It is not his fault that games such as this are too uncompetitive to be compelling, and though his team lack the appeal - for many neutrals - of Wenger's best sides, Chelsea did decorate the match with style.

The goals for Crespo and Arjen Robben were excellently fashioned, showing speed of thought, movement and technique. Chelsea should have won more comfortably against a side who defended poorly and barely looked like recovering once they fell behind, leaving them to rue two untaken early chances. But Mourinho outlined that tactical, thinking football must always be the priority.

"At 2-0 the first thing you think about is winning the game, the second thing is to win 3-0, then 4-0 and so on," he said. "But the first thing is always to win.

"We had many, many, many chances to score a third, a fourth and a fifth. But we have to always be under emotional control, and I gave the players the example of the game against Arsenal. We went 2-0 up, the next minute Joe Cole hit the post and maybe at that time my players thought the game was over and we could make an historical scoreline. But at that time I did not want historical results and the game was not over."

That was one reason why he asked the crowd to halt the olés. "We must show respect to our opponents and my team must understand that the game is not over," he said. "I don't like olés, because one day when Chelsea is losing in another stadium and the crowd is giving olés against us I won't like that. We have to give respect to our opponents all the time."

With Eidur Gudjohnsen linking impressively, Cole often bright, Robben bursting into good positions and Frank Lampard passing well in the second half, Birmingham struggled. They avoided a heavier defeat because of Crespo's poor finishing and good goalkeeping by Maik Taylor.

Steve Bruce's team exposed occasional flaws in Chelsea's defending of set pieces and crosses, but they lacked imagination and were dealt the blow of losing Matthew Upson to an ankle injury for at least a month. Birmingham, at home to Wigan today, would do well to target a defender as well as a striker now.

"I was fortunate to play in a (Manchester United) team in '94 which I thought was a bit invincible, and this Chelsea team have the same about them," Bruce said.

Mourinho will say thank you, but not olé, to that.