Carlo Ancelotti is to be applauded for instilling a new creed of scoring goals, not stopping them

At the age of 50 Carlo Ancelotti has taken his compatriots by surprise. Italians had to think hard to come up with any precedent in his career to this free-scoring Chelsea team. Someone with a sharp memory pointed to Fabio Capello’s Milan side completing an unbeaten Serie A campaign with an 8-2 victory at Foggia in May 1992, when Ancelotti was in the midfield. The imperfect analogy simply underlines the fact that the Chelsea manager is not normally associated with such sprees.

That is no slight on the knowledgeable and successful Ancelotti. In Serie A, like most other leagues, goals tend to peter out when one side is virtually certain of victory. Chelsea, however, no longer know when to stop. Stoke City have followed Sunderland and Aston Villa as the latest team to concede seven goals to them.

Six of the 21 have come in the last 10 minutes. Ancelotti encourages his players to keep going, but other managers would do likewise and still watch the momentum dwindle. Chelsea were in ever more of a frenzy on Sunday as time passed. The expansiveness is almost sacrilegious at a club still living in the shadows of José Mourinho’s time, when the Premier League was won twice in a row.

The first of those titles, with just 15 goals permitted to the opposition, amounted to a declaration that his organisational and tactical acumen counted for more than any notions that could occur to the men actually playing the game.

It was his smart scheme, too, that counted most when Internazionale prevailed at Stamford Bridge in the Champions League last month.

Mourinho’s Chelsea won the league with ease in 2004-05 as they gathered 95 points, a dozen clear of Arsenal. It is stress, by contrast, that will keep supporters engrossed this year in the bid to keep Manchester United at bay. A pair of victories in the remaining matches would lift Ancelotti’s side to 86 points, well short of the totals reached by Mourinho in 2005 or 2006. The Italian, of course, lives in an altered era, when the level of funding available to Mourinho is no longer on offer.

It has been a boon to everyone seeking entertainment that Ancelotti has chosen to trust in attack. That was sensible since the means at his disposal nudged him in that direction. The names of the back four no longer tripped off the tongue when there was some doubt, for instance, as to who should be paired with John Terry. By a combination of accident and intention, Alex is preferred at centre-half to Ricardo Carvalho, whose effectiveness has been curbed by injuries.

Branislav Ivanovic, in a similar manner, fetched up to good effect at right-back, although he is more likely to be seen at the core of the defence for Serbia. Despite the merits of the players involved in the alterations, rapport has been lost and Ashley Cole’s absence for over two months with a broken ankle was another hindrance. Guarding the back four has been one more dilemma, with at least five different men tried in the holding role.

Chelsea’s defensive record is the worst since 2002-03, the season before Roman Abramovich bought the club. And yet delight has emerged from difficulty. Ancelotti may have been indignant when sloppiness at set pieces cost Chelsea goals in consecutive away defeats at Wigan Athletic and Aston Villa in the autumn, but the real answer to the fallibility has been to overwhelm opponents. It is a tribute to the Italian’s preparation, too, that the side attack so incisively.

Ancelotti has overseen the development of Florent Malouda into one of the most influential figures now that he is more orchestrator than winger. In the chain reaction of this Chelsea campaign, attackers are galvanised by the enterprising approach. Didier Drogba was elated when his beautiful control of a Malouda pass paved the way for the first goal of Salomon Kalou’s hat-trick against Stoke. The provider has 25 league goals of his own in a season where Frank Lampard, too, is a regular scorer.

The paradox now may lie in Chelsea’s need to be a throwback to their former selves at Anfield on Sunday, when they will probably require the sturdiness that eluded them in the loss at Tottenham. Whatever the outcome, Ancelotti’s side are within four goals of the record Premier League total set by United while winning the title in 1999-00 and the season should be cherished for the verve of Chelsea.

ChelseaCarlo AncelottiPremier LeagueJosé MourinhoKevin McCarraguardian.co.uk

• ‘Today I am not so special for Chelsea supporters’
• Didier Drogba could face four-game suspension

José Mourinho called himself “the enemy” on his return to the ground he still describes as home but the Portuguese manager Internazionale coach said even the Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich, would concede that the better team had won as Internazionale beat Chelsea last night.

Mourinho’s former players departed with a familiar snarl and there were echoes of their controversial elimination by Barcelona a year ago as two credible penalty appeals were ignored, Didier Drogba was sent off and John Terry confronted the referee at the end before appearing to mouth “fucking shit” at the fourth official on his way down the tunnel.

Drogba had been sent off three minutes from time for stamping on Thiago Motta’s ankle. The striker received a four-match ban for abusing the referee Tom Henning Ovrebo after Barça’s 1-1 draw here last May, with two further games suspended for a probationary three-year period. That extra Uefa sanction is likely to come into effect, potentially condemning the striker to a four-game suspension at the start of next season. Mourinho put Chelsea’s behaviour down to frustration.

“Yesterday someone asked me if I would still be special if I lost here,” he said. “But today I’m not so special for Chelsea supporters who will probably never forgive me. It was difficult coming to my home as an enemy, but that is what happened. I exchanged SMS messages with John Terry yesterday [and] told him one of us would be sad today. That’s life.

“Roman is a very intelligent person and because of that he’s not the same person that he was when he arrived in football. Probably he thought it would be easy when he first arrived in football. It’s not easy. It’s difficult. Teams win on small details which make the difference. He knows it’s not easy now. He knows now how to read a game, understand a game, analyse the game and knows his team lost against a side who deserved to win. He’s a man of class, so he will accept this defeat because he knows Inter were the best team.”

Abramovich walked across the pitch after the match, as the Inter supporters bellowed Mourinho’s name. “This [Chelsea] is a team that lost a semi-final with a goal that was not a goal [in 2005], lost a semi-final on penalties [2007], lost a final on penalties [2008], lost a semi-final in a game that they should have won 3-0 with three penalties that were not given [last year],” said Mourinho. “This is the story of this club and the story of these players. This is their history – one of frustration.

“They had the ambition to go through and they were frustrated because, immediately, they felt that Inter were the best team. I’m not saying Inter are better than them. I’m saying that, today, Inter were much better than Chelsea, from the first minute to the last minute, and that brought frustration to their players, great professionals and great people. My people will always be my people. But today I was the enemy. And the enemy won. That’s life.”

Carlo Ancelotti, whose side were denied two first-half penalties after Walter Samuel appeared to haul down Drogba, said he had not been surprised by Mourinho’s selection that saw Wesley Sneijder behind three forwards, as Inter protected a 2-1 first-leg lead. “Maybe this defeat could be a very good motivation for the next few games,” said Chelsea’s manager. “We’ll have more pressure on us now but we must be strong and have good control of our emotions. My only regret is that we didn’t play as well as we did in the first leg. I know exactly what the expectations are. I have worked a long time in this environment. It’s normal that a manager comes under pressure if he loses a few matches.”Mourinho said: “I’m very happy because I won. I’m not very happy because they lost. I’m very happy because my players are happy, my supporters are happy, my president is happy, and because I worked so much for this game. As a professional, that’s the best feeling you can have. I’m not happy because my ex-players or Roman lost, or that Chelsea supporters go home sad. I’m not happy about their unhappiness. But that’s life.”

Champions LeagueJosé MourinhoChelseaInternazionaleDominic Fifieldguardian.co.uk