• Champions League

No one can live with beautiful Chelsea - Mourinho

Jose Mourinho says Chelsea's emphatic 5-0 win at Schalke in the Champions League was the best away performance he has overseen at the club.

Chelsea eased into the knockout stages in Gelsenkirchen as they secured top spot in Group G, with Mourinho asserting that any side would have struggled to live with them last night.

"The team played a fantastic match and the performance was complete," Mourinho said. "It was very impressive. Obviously we can lose and the bad result is waiting for us, but the reality is the team is playing very well. This was the whole 90 minutes.

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"I don't think I've seen a performance like this under me. I don't remember Chelsea playing in this way away from home. There have been great victories away from home with me, with Roberto [Di Matteo, the Schalke coach] and with other managers.

"But this was very impressive, very complete. The reality is that any team that played against us would feel it was very difficult. The players played a fantastic match."

Mourinho also feels his current Chelsea side have the flair and beauty to go with the brawn of the team that won two Premier League titles during his first spell at Stamford Bridge.

"The players are very serious," Mourinho said. "Everything they do with big focus and ambition, but at the same time with this extra component which is quite something new in Chelsea football: this happiness, this flair, this beauty.

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"Sometimes people who don't understand a lot about football try to put a stamp on a manager: this manager is this, this manager is that. The good ones adapt to reality.

"In this moment this team is completely different to my team in 2004-08. Completely different. Different players. Different profile. So we play a different football.

"As I was saying, this team, to be so good or better than other Chelsea teams? This team needs to win. At this moment: zero titles. We have to transform the quality of our game into results, which we are getting now. But we have to try and win things so this team goes down in Chelsea's history as a brilliant team who won something."

It proved to be a night to forget for Roberto Di Matteo against his former club, whom he led to a shock Champions League triumph in 2012.

"It's certainly a disappointing night for us, but we did play against a really great team tonight," Di Matteo said. "If you concede too much space and time to those players they'll exploit that.

"We paid them too much respect, weren't aggressive enough, didn't put enough pressure on them, and they were ice cold. It was a super, clinical performance from them."

Jose Mourinho says Chelsea are playing with "happiness, flair and beauty" © Getty Images

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John Terry's early goal started the avalanche that would fly past Schalke keeper Ralf Fahrmann, and he feels Chelsea are getting better and better this season.

"It was a great performance," said Terry. "We needed to put ourselves through as top of the group and with a busy schedule that is important because it gives the manager the chance to rest a few against Sporting Lisbon [in the final group game] if he wants to.

"The early goal killed Schalke off and when the third went in that was that. The forward play is excellent and we're looking dangerous every time we go forward. But we're all putting a shift in as well and defending well as a team.

"Being top of the group is very important for the next round and the draw and the forward play in our team is looking excellent. They are also putting a shift in for the team and help us defend, but we are not getting carried away. We seem to be getting stronger game by game, so long may that continue."

There was one note of concern for Mourinho, however, with Diego Costa suffering a leg injury, though he is not expected to miss Saturday's Premier League match against Sunderland.

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