Chelsea's Victory Over The Malaysian XI Affirms A New Direction For The Club

I saw some positive good football in today's game with the Malaysian XI as we ran over them 4-1 in front of their 40,000-strong home crowd. This match was better in terms of entertainment and quality than the previous one with the Singha All Stars, though that one was a good match too. But the Malaysia XI vs Chelsea game was better in the sense that Chelsea was able to create more opportunities for themselves and score more goals. That's got to show that the team is finally beginning to gel, understand themselves better and function as a unit.

Romelu Lukaku vs Malaysia XI

The stars of Wednesday's game with the Thailand XI also shone today, but this time they shone even brighter. The 1-0 score recorded in the other match was bettered by 3 goals though we ended up conceding a solitary goal that erased our clean sheet (I know Mourinho won't be too happy with that). Scintillating new signing Kevin De Bruyne was at it again as he was able to terrorize yet another defence. He was rewarded with a stunning goal courtesy of a brilliantly struck volley that was slammed into the roof of the net. Bangkok's match winner, Romelu Lukaku, made sure that he continued the great form that he carried over from last season (remember he scored a hatrick against Manchester United on the final day of the 2012-2013 EPL season that earned them a draw when they were trailing 5-2) by scoring his second goal of the preseason campaign.

The fourth goal was added in the 89th minute by Nigerian compatriot Victor Moses to all but seal the victory which was never in doubt at any point in the match. But it was the academy trialist from Burkina Faso, Bertrand Traore, that got things started by netting a very early goal to kill the morale of the Malaysians both on the filed of play and the ones cheering in the stands. Barring the intense heat and the humidity of an astonishing 80% (for a night) that made the players tire easily, the Blues would have cruised to victory with a more flattering margin.

John Terry vs Malaysia XI

The Blues's efforts were something to cheer about, especially that of the youngsters and the new signings that the Special One kept faith in. Mark Schwarzer is definitely not a youngster, but he is a new signing and he gave a good account of himself this afternoon. The 40-year-old Australian was the better keeper in the match and made sure that the Malaysians would go into the tunnel at half-time without a celebrating a goal. He is proving to be quite a shrewd signing. One has to wonder why Fulham let such a prized asset leave at no cost at all. Was it that he knew a bigger club would come knocking or he got tired of them or the club was becoming bored seeing him between the sticks at Craven Cottage? Your guess is as good as mine. Not to worry, Chelsea fans are surely not getting tired or bored of seeing him put on the green jersey once in a while at Stamford Bridge any time soon if he keeps on performing like this.

But the most important positive in this match is the way Chelsea players were willing to attack the ball even after they had taken the lead. Before they would have sat back to defend their score and hope to hit their opponents with a surprise deadly - and usually precise - counter. This shows that Mourinho has finally dumped the sit-back-and-defend approach he adopted in his first stint at the club, paving way for a more fluid, free-flowing  attacking football. His new style is not quite new to Chelsea after all. It bears semblance to Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto Di Matteo's  philosophies at Chelsea where they encouraged the players to go forward and express themselves. At the end of the day, two FA Cup trophies, one English Premier League trophy and a Champions League glory were added to our trophy cabinet to justify those philosophies.

I believe Mourinho has learnt his lessons from the previous experience at Chelsea when his team was accused of playing restrictive football. Now he has brought what the fans were and are still clamouring for. I'm won't go all out to call it "sexy" football outrightly, but at least it is a marked departure from the much cautious approach of the 2004-2007 era. However, only time will tell if it is a real departure from the old ways or just a flash in the pan.