While Manchester United's 2-0 victory over Chelsea was perhaps their best performance under Mourinho to date, it was also one of Chelsea's worst under Antonio Conte: it was the first time in more than ten years that they failed to have a shot on target in a Premier League game. Hampered as they were by injury - Thibault Courtois did his ankle at an NBA promotional event, and Marcos Alonso withdrew in the warm-up - Chelsea were oddly anemic, with Eden Hazard snuffed out by Ander Herrera and Diego Costa dedicating his energies to grappling with Marcos Rojo.
Conte, usually an irascible and tireless figure on the sideline, was oddly unmoved throughout, as if he couldn't understand why Chelsea were so poor, and did little to change things during the game.
Chelsea have today come up with an excuse for their poor performance, and are blaming a virus that spread throughout the camp ahead of the game. It was that virus which forced Alonso to pull out, and now Chelsea are saying that he was not the only player affected by it ahead of kick-off: Diego Costa and Victor Moses - the latter withdrawn in the second-half, the former utterly ineffective - were both ill ahead of the game.
The Guardian report that the virus spread throughout the club at a morale-fostering meal organised by Conte on Thursday night. Costa, Moses, Alonso and Courtois are all expected to be fine for the FA Cup semi-final with Spurs this weekend.
While Spurs will be delighted to profit from the bad luck to befall their rivals, they may have some sympathy for this Chelsea virus: they missed out on the Champions League in 2006 after their squad were hit by food poisoning following some dodgy lasagne the night before their final game of the season.
