Chelsea 1 Benfica 0: Mourinho loses on Stamford Bridge return as Blues scrape three points with calamitous own-goal

WITH the Jose show in town, Enzo Maresca took his chance to slip out of the limelight and ease the pressure.

After a rotten run of three defeats in the last four – their only win being a ropey one at Lincoln – the last thing Maresca needed was a visit from Jose Mourinho.

But the supposedly rebranded, soft and cuddly Jose was only happy to oblige as the Blues picked up their first Champions League win thanks to a Richard Rios own goal.

The soft-focus Special One spent his return to London dishing out hugs for former players and Chelsea staff, waving at fans and winking at officials around the tunnel.

The mask did, eventually, slip when he was booked late on for venting his frustrations at a free-kick being awarded to Chelsea.

Mourinho’s name was chanted by the Blues faithful within 90 seconds of kick-off.

You can bet we would have heard a lot more of it had things gone south for Chelsea.

Maresca’s men made their Champions League return two weeks ago with a humbling defeat at Bayern Munich which has been followed by defeats to Manchester United and Brighton.

Despite insistence from within Chelsea that Maresca is safe, he would have known all too well what a defeat to Benfica, and Mourinho, would have done for his future prospects.

Thomas Tuchel being in the stands made it two former Chelsea managers in attendance – a poor result could have pushed the Italian closer to that club.

No damage was done on that front, though there was little to shout about.

If anything, this was a night which only confirmed that both Mourinho and his beloved Blues are a long way from their best. 

Mourinho’s returning record at Stamford Bridge now stands at eight played, just one win – 15 years ago.

Maresca named far from his strongest side, without a recognised striker.

Joao Pedro was a doubt ahead of the game and started on the bench, with youngster Tyrique George up top.

Facundo Buonanotte, who was not even in the Champions League squad until Dario Essugo picked up an injury, also started.

The muddled team, thanks to injuries and fatigue after a truncated pre-season, is just one of the complications Maresca is facing in West London.

Chelsea began poorly, looking sloppy and wasteful on the ball and twice being scared by Benfica.

Dodi Lukebakio, the former Watford winger, struck the post before Rios weaved his way through the midfield and tested Robert Sanchez.

The Blues looked shaky but were offering some threat from wide – Garnacho hooked a poor volley off target before Pedro Neto cut in and flashed an effort past the far post.

It was the two wingers who combined to settle the nerves and put the Blues on track as they tried to move beyond a testing fortnight.

Neto again skipped in from the right and lifted a fine cross to the far post.

Garnacho had stayed in the space wide on the left and snaked in with a well-timed run.

The Argentine opted to square rather than shoot and watched Rios wallop his cross into his own net.

After receiving a torrent of abuse back at Old Trafford and an awful full debut at Lincoln City, Garnacho needed a moment to spark his Chelsea career into life.

Both he and Maresca will hope that this can be it, though the evidence which followed – a player scared to take on full-backs and only capable of blasting over – showed he may need more.

Mourinho’s men did not crumble following the setback.

Perhaps knowing he could test a cobbled together Blues backline, Lukebakio continued to probe down the right and was having a lot of success, one of his crosses only just cut out by Trevoh Chalobah.

Also up for the fight, however, were the travelling fans – focusing their ire at Enzo Fernandez, who ditched Benfica for the Blues after just 29 games for the club.

The Chelsea captain on the night applauded the fans as he moved over to take a corner but was pelted by missiles in return.

A host of substitutes warming up tried to calm their supporters, before Mourinho moved down to intervene and calm tempers.

Chelsea should have made light work of a struggling Benfica side after the break. Mourinho is only back at the club because they lost to Qarabag in the opening Champions League round.

Where Chelsea should have been suffocating their visitors, they were reduced to scrapping.

This was not Mourinho’s pragmatic football dragging Chelsea down to Benfica’s level, there was little else they could plan to do here and were still attempting to fight back when they could.

Sanchez was called into action to deny Fredrik Aursnes after he had slipped past the Blues backline.

Maresca sent on Jamie Gittens, Estevao and Pedro to try and assert some dominance but still they laboured.

Estevao saw a header tipped over the bar but they offered little else in the way of excitement.

With the clock ticking down, Pedro swung a high boot and connected with Tomas Araujo, earning a second booking and a third Chelsea red card in four games.