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MAYBE, Jose Mourinho was right after all.
The Sunday newspapers in Britain were awash with stories of how John Terry was instrumental in hounding the Portuguese out of Chelsea.
It was reported that the former manager had questioned the skipper's form and fitness.
Terry won the battle of wills at Stamford Bridge but he has to be held accountable for the Blues' 0-2 defeat at Manchester United.
The visitors had already lucked out after just 32 minutes, when Jon Obi Mikel was dismissed by referee Mike Dean for a lunge on Patrice Evra.
One man down, it was a situation that Mourinho thrived in, having successfully cultivated a siege mentality with the players.
Instead, it was Terry who opened the door for United to find a way past the excellent Petr Cech.
Three minutes into first-half injury time, the Blues allowed a clearance to be intercepted and relayed back to Ryan Giggs.
The Welshman showed great technique to bend the ball with the outside of his left boot past the bodies of Andriy Shevchenko and Ashley Cole.
All that stood between Cech's clean sheet and the onrushing Carlos Tevez was Terry. However, the England captain stood rooted.
That was all the invitation the Argentinian needed to launch himself as a human torpedo and power a header past Cech.
And with one minute from time, Louis Saha completed Chelsea's miserable day with a cool penalty after he was tripped in the box by Tal Ben-Haim.
New manager Avram Grant was completely out-thought, out-fought and out-played as he failed in his baptism of fire.
He started with Shevchenko up front but all the Ukrainian contributed was a wild shot over the bar in the ninth minute.
None of his three substitutes, Saloman Kalou, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Claudio Pizarro, made any difference when they came on.
Chelsea's clear lack of fight is also a distressing sight for their fans as they spent almost the entire second half camped inside their own half.
United toyed with them for almost the whole of the second half, with Michael Carrick bossing the midfield and the attacking triumvirate of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Tevez running the Blues ragged.
The defeat drops Chelsea to sixth place.
But Mourinho had proved his point.
Final score at Old Trafford: Special One one, Chelsea nil.
meng@sph.com.sg
Match summary Manchester United 2
(Tevez 45, Saha 89pen)
Chelsea 0
Man Utd: Edwin van der Sar, Wes Brown, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Scholes, Michael Carrick, Ryan Giggs, Carlos Tevez (Louis Saha 79), Wayne Rooney.
Chelsea: Petr Cech, Paulo Ferreira, Tal Ben-Haim, John Terry, Ashley Cole, Claude Makelele, Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel, Joe Cole (Claudio Pizarro 76), Andriy Shevchenko (Salomon Kalou 59), Florent Malouda (Shaun Wright-Phillips 69).
Yellow cards: Rooney (61), J. Cole (73), Brown (80), Terry (83).
Red card: Mikel (32).
ST's Man of the Match: Wayne Rooney.
Referee: Mike Dean.
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