He’s back! Jose Mourinho is sure to receive a warm welcome when he walks out of the Stamford Bridge tunnel and into the away dugout when Chelsea entertain Benfica in the Champions League.
The self-styled Special One will always hold a big place in the hearts of Blues fans after winning multiple trophies at the club with three Premier League triumphs, an FA Cup success and three League Cup victories to his immense credit.
He has also been in charge at Porto, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Tottenham, Roma and, until recently, Fenerbache but is now back in the hotseat at the club where he started that impressive managerial career at the turn of the millennium.
Mourinho took over at the Eagles after previous boss Bruno Lage was sacked following a shock 3-2 Champions League defeat at home to Azerbaijan underdogs Qarabag and he has since led them to two wins and a draw in Portugal’s Primeira Liga.
He will find Chelsea reeling from defeats to Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Brighton while the Blues are also suffering from a shocking injury list which includes Cole Palmer, Liam Delap, Levi Colwill and a fistful of others.
Get personalised updates on Chelsea every day
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.
Both clubs will be desperate to pick up their first Champions League win of the season to settle their nerves, even though both should eventually find themselves in the top 24 with the chance to be included in the draw for the last 16 an,d despite his affinity with the King’s Road club, Mourinho would love nothing better to pile the agony on opposite number Enzo Maresca.
He will be expecting striker Vangelis Pavlidis to add to the six goals he has already scored this term, including a double which gave them a 2-1 victory over Gil Vicente on Saturday, and the Greece forward is 14/5 with Betway to score at any time against a Blues defence which has kept just two clean sheets in eight matches.
Chelsea should prevail, however, and a 2-1 victory is 15/2 with bet365 and Unibet and a home win with both teams to score is 21/10 with the former firm, Betway and Paddy Power.
Big summer signing Joao Pedro has not scored since the 2-0 win over Fulham in August but can get on the scoresheet here at 13/8 with Sporting Index and SpreadEx while he is 11/2 with the same outlets to do so by bagging the first goal of the game.
Champions League odds: Liverpool can return to winning ways
Liverpool travel to Turkey bidding to return to winning ways following their 2-1 Premier League defeat to Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
Eddie Nketiah turned the tables on the Reds by thumping in the injury-time winner for the Eagles but Hugo Ekitike should return to Arne Slot’s attack after missing that match through suspension and he is 5/1 with bet365 to break the deadlock and 17/10 with BetMGM to score at any time.
The Reds to be held by Galatasaray in the first half and win in the second is 17/4 with Unibet.
Tottenham trek to the Arctic Circle to face Bodo/Glimt, who they beat over two semi-final legs on their way to last season’s Europa League victory in Bilbao.
Spurs were a difficult watch in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at home to bottom club Wolves and may have to settle for another draw in far trickier circumstances at 29/10 with SpreadEx and Sporting Index. Lucas Bergvall is 13/2 to score at anytime for the London club.
Golf bets
It was a relatively meaningless putt after Europe’s euphoria at Bethpage Black but Sam Burns’ failure to sink the last shot of an intense, gripping, truly epic Ryder Cup cost us a handsome haul.
If he had drained the effort he would have tied the final singles match with Robert MacIntyre and the score would have landed our bet on a 14.5/13.5 victory for Europe which was a whopping 12/1. Ouch.
Instead he missed and we were left to count our winnings on victory for Luke Donald’s heroes at 29/20 to triumph and 13/10 on them winning the first day. Jon Rahm being Europe’s top wildcard points scorer at 7/4 also landed while our 8/1 shot Xander Schauffele shared top United States points scoring honours with Cameron Young. Not a bad weekend at the office.