Though Jose Mourinho has not played Chelsea since his departure by "mutual consent" in September 2007, beating them for the second time in three weeks on Tuesday night must have felt incredibly familiar.
Not because he was up against so many players he signed and managed, not because he was on his old ground and not even because another of his fearless predictions once again came true.
Condemning an ageing force of superstars to another critically damaging defeat is what he has been doing for the season-and-a-half he has been in Italy. The Inter boss has had the beating of city rivals AC Milan not just on head-to-heads, but on their points tally as well, and Chelsea are showing almost all the symptoms of going the same way.
A spectacular team was assembled by Carlo Ancelotti at the beginning of the decade. Backed by one of the most rich and powerful men in football's history, Silvio Berlusconi, Ancelotti was able to bring in Andrea Pirlo, Alessandro Nesta, Clarence Seedorf, Filippo Inzaghi and many more to formulate a team that would prove one of the most dominant in Europe and a consistent force domestically.
But when the return didn't quite match the mammoth investment, doubled up by the implications of the 2006 Calciopoli scandal and Serie A's overall decline in revenue, this great Milan side began growing old together. And not in the good way.
There was no sign of a new generation coming to take the place of the old, nor was there the ambition to go the extra financial mile to sign a new set of emerging stars. The 2007 Champions League triumph aside - which itself was in many ways an anomaly and a swansong for a once superb side - Milan have been on the most humiliating slide for what has now been several years.
Ancelotti has moved on, but the song remains the same at San Siro, and now too at Stamford Bridge. Here we have the blueprint of a domineering Chelsea side assembled almost entirely by Jose Mourinho from 2004 to 2007, backed by hundreds of millions of owner Roman Abramovich's personal fortune.
This is a team whose fortunes in their prime mirrored those of Milan. Chelsea were an unbeatable force domestically, but also-rans in Europe.
The decline is taking the same ominous shape it did at San Siro. The owner has lost far too much (with the recession doing for Abramovich the hard work that Calciopoli and Serie A's revenue decline did for Milan) and has so far shown no willingness to spend his way out of trouble. The squad, while talented, are all of the same age and beginning to exhibit the same weaknesses, and the coach is precisely the same person.
A person who trusts in experience and class, who trusts in what's familiar and who trusts in forward planning. He is a creature of habit, and has quite clearly already found his groove at Stamford Bridge - so much so that he had no semblance of a clue of how to respond to Jose Mourinho's tactical masterstrokes on Tuesday evening.
For long enough now, Serie A has looked an old and tired proposition when faced with the Premier League, but it was Inter's incredible energy, boundless determination and tactical invention that did for a tired and predictable Chelsea over the two legs of this tie.
It was an ominous role reversal that says as much, if not more, about Chelsea's shortcomings as pretenders to the European throne as it does about Inter's resurgence under Jose Mourinho.
It's not too late for the Blues, and escaping the transfer ban for the Gael Kakuta saga is a blessing they cannot afford to pass up. There needs to be a summer shake-up. A game-changer. Where are Chelsea's three strikers up front to defend with attack, their creative genius in midfield or their wonderkid on the bench?
It won't all cost the earth, but it will require the coach and sporting director - whether or not they are still Ancelotti and Frank Arnesen - to have the courage and the vision to make it happen this summer. Gambles will have to be taken now, swallowing many a bitter pill with the hope of avoiding the impending putrid aftertaste that is the washed-up and near-unsalvageable state of AC Milan.
Not because he was up against so many players he signed and managed, not because he was on his old ground and not even because another of his fearless predictions once again came true.
Condemning an ageing force of superstars to another critically damaging defeat is what he has been doing for the season-and-a-half he has been in Italy. The Inter boss has had the beating of city rivals AC Milan not just on head-to-heads, but on their points tally as well, and Chelsea are showing almost all the symptoms of going the same way.
A spectacular team was assembled by Carlo Ancelotti at the beginning of the decade. Backed by one of the most rich and powerful men in football's history, Silvio Berlusconi, Ancelotti was able to bring in Andrea Pirlo, Alessandro Nesta, Clarence Seedorf, Filippo Inzaghi and many more to formulate a team that would prove one of the most dominant in Europe and a consistent force domestically.
But when the return didn't quite match the mammoth investment, doubled up by the implications of the 2006 Calciopoli scandal and Serie A's overall decline in revenue, this great Milan side began growing old together. And not in the good way.
There was no sign of a new generation coming to take the place of the old, nor was there the ambition to go the extra financial mile to sign a new set of emerging stars. The 2007 Champions League triumph aside - which itself was in many ways an anomaly and a swansong for a once superb side - Milan have been on the most humiliating slide for what has now been several years.
Ancelotti has moved on, but the song remains the same at San Siro, and now too at Stamford Bridge. Here we have the blueprint of a domineering Chelsea side assembled almost entirely by Jose Mourinho from 2004 to 2007, backed by hundreds of millions of owner Roman Abramovich's personal fortune.
This is a team whose fortunes in their prime mirrored those of Milan. Chelsea were an unbeatable force domestically, but also-rans in Europe.
The decline is taking the same ominous shape it did at San Siro. The owner has lost far too much (with the recession doing for Abramovich the hard work that Calciopoli and Serie A's revenue decline did for Milan) and has so far shown no willingness to spend his way out of trouble. The squad, while talented, are all of the same age and beginning to exhibit the same weaknesses, and the coach is precisely the same person.
A person who trusts in experience and class, who trusts in what's familiar and who trusts in forward planning. He is a creature of habit, and has quite clearly already found his groove at Stamford Bridge - so much so that he had no semblance of a clue of how to respond to Jose Mourinho's tactical masterstrokes on Tuesday evening.
For long enough now, Serie A has looked an old and tired proposition when faced with the Premier League, but it was Inter's incredible energy, boundless determination and tactical invention that did for a tired and predictable Chelsea over the two legs of this tie.
It was an ominous role reversal that says as much, if not more, about Chelsea's shortcomings as pretenders to the European throne as it does about Inter's resurgence under Jose Mourinho.
It's not too late for the Blues, and escaping the transfer ban for the Gael Kakuta saga is a blessing they cannot afford to pass up. There needs to be a summer shake-up. A game-changer. Where are Chelsea's three strikers up front to defend with attack, their creative genius in midfield or their wonderkid on the bench?
It won't all cost the earth, but it will require the coach and sporting director - whether or not they are still Ancelotti and Frank Arnesen - to have the courage and the vision to make it happen this summer. Gambles will have to be taken now, swallowing many a bitter pill with the hope of avoiding the impending putrid aftertaste that is the washed-up and near-unsalvageable state of AC Milan.
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