With upset of Chelsea, Jose Mourinho and Man United add intrigue to late-season title race

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho reacts during his club's match against Chelsea on April 16, 2017. Carl Recine / Reuters

It ranked among Jose Mourinho’s more cunning bluffs. Just as he seemed to raise the white flag, he raised the stakes.

The title race is more compelling after Chelsea’s most chastening day in six months. The quest for the Uefa Champions League places has added intrigue after evidence Manchester United have the acumen and determination to prevail.

Mourinho roused United after seeming to weaken them. The paradox in the Portuguese’s management has always been in the way the Galactico of the dugout has cherished more mundane figures.

A place in his heart is reserved for resolutely unglamorous players who follow his orders.

He stripped his side of flair, removed the supposed superstars — with the exception of Paul Pogba, and the world’s most expensive player was charged with replicating Marouane Fellaini’s ungainly contribution — entrusted the armband to Ashley Young.

Members of the supporting cast became leading men. United beat the leaders. They produced their best performance of the season, Chelsea perhaps their worst.

United’s destructiveness came in part from a destroyer. Ander Herrera was selected as Eden Hazard’s bodyguard. He departed with a goal and an assist.

He epitomised them. So did Marcus Rashford, picked in place of the rested Zlatan Ibrahimovic. So did Young: captain, wingback, driving force, improbable talisman.

Mourinho faced his past and prevailed. It felt as though history repeated itself.

The Portuguese derailed one title challenge when a Chelsea side packed with fringe figures won at Anfield in 2014 on a day remembered largely for an infamous Steven Gerrard slip.

Once again, he used his unpredictability as an asset. Antonio Conte could not have second-guessed this side. Nor could he find an answer to them.

Mourinho pursued a policy of pace in attack, physicality in midfield and plenty of bodies at the back. His side dominated Chelsea in a way none have since defeats to Liverpool and Arsenal persuaded Conte to embark on his radical switch to 3-4-2-1.

Mourinho’s own devotion to the back four has rarely wavered over the years. Yet at his best, he is a problem solver, a man who can apply the acutest of analytical brains to a conundrum. Thinks how to stop opponents and then works backwards in terms of what that means for his own selection.

Tottenham Hotspur beat Chelsea with three at the back. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery.

It is also the best way of countering a formation that most are yet to unlock. United did. They lent tactical discipline, industry and commitment. They suggested lessons were learnt.

They have faced Chelsea three times this season, getting three goals better in each of the last two: from losing by four goals in October, they won by two.

They emphasised the athletic. Rashford had troubled Chelsea with his speed in United’s FA Cup defeat at Stamford Bridge. Mourinho took note.

Rashford left David Luiz wading through quicksand as he surged clear to score. In an instant, he was the Rashford of last season, quicksilver and utterly at ease in the biggest of stages.

With Rashford paired by Jesse Lingard, there was a local feel as the United attack was energised by an injection of youth.

Rewind to last summer and it was possible to envisage a front four of Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Juan Mata. None started.

The forward line has doubled up as a home for the elderly, even if Ibrahimovic, who compared himself to the cinematic character Benjamin Button, may disagree.

But Button was benched — tired according to Mourinho — and the teenager Rashford was unleashed and unstoppable.

If October’s 4-0 thrashing by Chelsea represented humiliation for Mourinho, this was vindication.

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