Jose Mourinho rolls back the years as Chelsea homecoming provides untimely distraction for Enzo Maresca | OneFootball

Jose Mourinho will step foot in the Stamford Bridge dugout for a fourth time as the opposing manager

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Second state visits aren’t as rare as they used to be.

Now try a fourth. Jose Mourinho always did buck the trend, and his return to Stamford Bridge, where so many of his happiest days took place, is just the latest in a long line of Chelsea homecomings for a manager who coached them twice and is now preparing to take charge of a fourth team against them, at the stadium that made him what he is today.

Having led Inter Milan at the Bridge in 2010 following his first Chelsea stint and coached Manchester United and Tottenham there following his second, on Tuesday night he is back again, taking charge of only his fourth match since accepting the job of Benfica head coach back home in his native Portugal.

Sat in the Drake Suite before a bustling pack of reporters at Stamford Bridge on Monday evening, Mourinho rolled back the years, charming his way through the answers to question after question, full of praise for Chelsea as an institution and the reputation that preceded him after that fiercely successful 2004-07 first spell at the helm.

Mourinho denied he ever called himself “the special one” in that famed first press conference some 21 years ago. “A special one”, he continues to insist, though the self-admission he is Chelsea’s “biggest one” allayed any fears that he had, in the years since, slipped into a state of newfound modesty.

Jose Mourinho first arrived at Chelsea 21 years ago

AFP via Getty Images

Enzo Maresca must accept he is not the main attraction on this fateful occasion. Safe in his job but in real need of a victory to kickstart the Blues’ Champions League campaign after defeat to Bayern Munich, he described his opposite number as “a legend for Chelsea, a legend for different clubs around the world”.

He must accept, too, that the Chelsea fans will likely chant Mourinho’s name and may well avoid chanting his, and must focus on matters on the pitch. Chelsea have won all six matches when Portuguese teams have previously visited Stamford Bridge, and Benfica were beaten en route to the Blues’ 2012 Champions League title and in the final of 2013 Europa League.

Just as Chelsea and Mourinho, Chelsea and Benfica have previous — and it tends only to go one way.

“Chelsea is a winning machine that had, in the past two or three years, a moment without trophies,” Mourinho reflected, when he spoke of the club’s direction since Roman Abramovich sold the club to Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital in May 2022.

But Mourinho, whose son lives a five-minute walk from Stamford Bridge and attends most home games, added that “what happened last season put things back on track”, and this was rightful recognition of the campaign that got Chelsea back into this competition in the first place.

Mourinho praised Chelsea’s board for placing faith in Maresca, who delivered Champions League football and two trophies last season.

Form has fallen flat over the last five matches for Chelsea, and injuries have set in on the back of a 51-week season that included, of course, that triumphant but exhausting Club World Cup campaign in the American summer heat. They will be feeling the heat again if Mourinho’s men manage to consign them to a fourth defeat in their last six games.

For Maresca and the Chelsea players, Mourinho’s homecoming serves as a potential distraction from a match they really ought to be winning.

For the man himself, the grand occasion itself, the narrative, the romance, the bravado, the reunions and press conferences and chance to step out into the Stamford Bridge technical area once more, this is what it's all about.

“I am part of their history, and they are part of my history,” he purred. “I helped them to become a bigger Chelsea, and they helped me to become a bigger Jose. I am not a blue anymore. I am red, and I want to win.”

Mourinho is made for these moments, and this will be a special one.