Jose Mourinho hailed the "beauty" in Chelsea's football after Tuesday's 5-0 destruction of Schalke in Gelsenkirchen saw them book their place in the Champions League knockout stage with a game to spare.
Strikes from John Terry, Willian, Didier Drogba, Ramires and an own goal from Jan Kirchhoff at the Veltins Arena gave the Blues their joint-biggest ever away win in Europe's elite club competition and cement their status as Group G winners.
But it was the manner of Chelsea's performance that most struck Mourinho, with the Portuguese suggesting they have never produced a more "complete" display away from home in the Roman Abramovich era.
“The players are very serious,” Mourinho told reporters. “Everything they do with big focus and ambition, but at the same time with this component, which is something new in Chelsea football – this happiness, this flair, this beauty.
"The way they are doing things, we are very happy. We are having good results and playing really, really well at this moment.
“I don't remember Chelsea playing in this way away from home. Obviously, there have been great victories away from home with me, with Roberto, even with other managers. But this was very impressive. Very complete.
"I know, because you are going to say Schalke were not good, they made mistakes, but the reality is any team that played against us would feel it was very difficult. The players played a fantastic match.
“This was the whole 90 minutes. Sometimes when a team is winning 3-0, 4-0, 5-0, you make a mistake and allow the others to score. But no, we didn't. The team were so solid. If anything, in the first half, we could have scored more goals.
"They must be very sad with this result, but my experience tells me that when we lose against a team who is much better than us, you have to accept it. They have to accept we were too strong for them.”
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