Fabregas conducting Mourinho’s orchestra

LONDON — When we hang labels on managers, the board around Jose Mourinho’s neck tends to read: Pragmatic, functional, ruthless, meticulous and clean sheet-obsessed. No one has reached for a paintbrush to add the word “romantic”.

Mourinho’s grand tour of Europe has taken him full circle to the club where he first proved that coaching Porto to a Champions League title was no fluke.

At the start of his second season back, Chelsea produced the most striking performance of the opening weekend, with Cesc Fabregas now in charge of the rhythm section and threatening to pick up where he left off in his best years at Arsenal.

To form any hard judgment after one round of games would be laughable. A Monday-night win at a newly promoted club is not a script for a 38-game campaign.

Yet, Fabregas has already been widely tipped to be one of the most influential signings of the summer and there is much to like about the tale of him and Mourinho returning to find salvation in England after unsatisfying spells in Spain.

The great homecoming for Fabregas was meant to be Barcelona.

Mourinho’s coronation as top coach in Europe and the man who completed a hallowed decima (10th Champions League title) was meant to come at Real Madrid.

Instead, it could yet be England, where these two former clasico enemies create their masterworks.

It was at Stamford Bridge in his first reign where Mourinho displayed his true tactical acumen, team-building skills and gift for handling stars.

Not once in his travels since has anyone accused him of art for art’s sake, or of seeing management as an attempt to write a masterpiece.

Fabregas, though, was a signing based on fluidity, panache and spatial awareness as well as toughness of character. He is one of the few in today’s top tier who is capable of running not only his department, but also the ebb and flow of a whole game.

A central midfield of Fabregas and Nemanja Matic is a substantial upgrade on, say, John Obi Mikel, Ramiresand an ageing Frank Lampard.

In goal, Chelsea have pulled off the miracle of finding (at no extra cost) a keeper capable of relegating Petr Cech to the bench. The return of Thibaut Courtois from his lengthy loan spell at Atletico Madrid is a spectacular windfall.

The Burnley game suggested serendipity all around: a brilliant new goalkeeper, the ideal striker and the perfect midfield orchestrator who knows the Premier League.

Chelsea fans will be rightly protective of their Champions League-winning side and the teams Mourinhohas assembled to end a 50-year wait for the English title.

However, logically, why should he stop at trophies? Why should he shut down games at 2-0 when he has the ammunition to win them 5-0? Why should he bulldoze a path to the title when he has players who can dance their way there: Eden Hazard, Willian, Andre Schurrle and Fabregas, for example?

Because haunting the many floors of his brain is the belief that football is an exercise in power, not beauty; and that winning is power.

However, with this new side, Mourinho is displaying his highly developed knowledge of how successful teams work. He saw what was missing and went shopping for it.

The next time we call him an anti-football manager, we will have to qualify it by saying he bought Fabregas in this transfer window: A creator,not a destroyer. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH