Chelsea are back on top – and it's all thanks to José Mourinho

José Mourinho might win another Premier League title for Chelsea. The beating meted out by Mourinho's Internazionale to his former employers in the Champions League left Carlo Ancelotti's team with only domestic prizes to hunt and has propelled them to big wins over Portsmouth, Aston Villa and now Manchester United. A 1-1 draw at Blackburn Rovers followed Inter's raid on Stamford Bridge but since then Chelsea's eyes have worn the glint of Premier League silver. Mourinho was the last Chelsea manager to take the English title for Roman Abramovich four years ago and he could now win it for him again from his Italian exile. With this 2-1 victory with goals from Joe Cole and the second-half substitute Didier Drogba (the second from an offside position), Ancelotti's side moved two points clear of United with five games left. "We had a very good reaction after that defeat against Inter," Ancelotti said. In Chelsea's movie Mourinho always finds a way to invade the frame. This time he unburdened them of European responsibilities and gave them an edge of freshness over United and Arsenal. Chelsea confront Villa – the team they beat 7-1 last week – in a semi-final at Wembley on Saturday as they pursue a league and FA Cup double. "Chelsea are definitely favourites now, there's no doubt about that," Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, said. "We'll certainly respond, but we could win our next five games and still not win [the league]." Still flat from the midweek 2-1 Champions League loss at Bayern Munich, United were emasculated by the loss of Wayne Rooney, who has scored 33 times in all competitions. They trail Bayern 2-1 going into Wednesday's quarter-final return leg. Refereeing controversies have become an obligatory spin-off from these high-stakes games but the match officials for this potential championship decider deserve the sharpest scrutiny. Mike Dean, the referee, declined to award penalties when Park Ji-sung was tripped in the penalty area and Gary Neville barged over Nicolas Anelka at the other end. Drogba was a yard offside for his 25th league goal of the campaign and Federico Macheda appeared to use an arm for United's late reply. "In a game of that magnitude you need quality officials, and we didn't get that today. Just a poor, poor performance," Ferguson said. Simon Beck, the linesman who kept his flag down when Drogba scored, drew this stinging observation from the United manager: "If he can't get that right why is he officiating such an important game? It's just the quality of the official, I'm afraid." When the gun smoke cleared, though, there was no disputing Chelsea's superiority. Unhindered by Champions League action and flights to Europe, Ancelotti used their Cobham training ground to plan the ambush: "We didn't have a match, so we had a good possibility to improve our condition, improve our play." The idea was to hit United with "a high intensity, high tempo", and the plot worked as Dimitar Berbatov fell short of Rooney's barn-burning brilliance in his efforts to dominate Alex and John Terry. A lack of confidence and conviction was apparent when Neville crossed for him in the last minute and Berbatov volleyed his shot into the ground at the Stretford End. Saturday lunchtime kick-offs lack the emotional thrust of big Sunday afternoon or midweek floodlit clashes and the Old Trafford congregation were listless until a cross from Ryan Giggs was headed over by Berbatov, who was forced too often to drop off the front line in search of the ball and found himself clattered by Chelsea's enforcers. By then, Cole had turned in a Florent Malouda cross in what might have been an audition for a place in the United orchestra. Cole's high wage demands could cause his departure this summer and Old Trafford is a possible destination, assuming United are willing to pay more in wages than Chelsea seem inclined to. Another rumble in Ancelotti's sky is that he started with Drogba on the bench despite being told by his senior striker that he had overcome a knee injury. "Didier didn't train for two days during the week and he wasn't 100%," said Mourinho's former sparring partner in Milan. Drogba applied himself fully, but Ancelotti will have been told on his very first day at Cobham about the risks of alienating his most potent and highly-strung attacker. To stop April becoming the cruellest month United need a 1-0 win over Bayern and league victories at Blackburn and Manchester City. They have been here before, countless times, so the momentum lost in Munich and in this debilitating defeat is unlikely to extend to a slump, provided Rooney's absence can be ameliorated by Berbatov and a committee of eager souls. Chelsea, on the other hand, have been forced by failure in Europe to set a course back to the summit of the English game. Even Ancelotti seemed newly animated by this compulsory reordering of priorities. In the coaching zone for most of the match he waved, prodded and gesticulated like ... well, like Mourinho: an observation that would have him reaching for the sick bag.