Chapter 314: The Relentless Winning Streak That Crushed City's Spirit
This season's Champions League quarterfinals, just like last year, were stacked with heavyweights.
All eight remaining teams came from Europe's top four leagues and currently sat in their domestic top fours.
Yes, each matchup had its favorites. But none of the remaining clubs could be called an "easy draw."
Take Real Madrid vs. Manchester City.
Most fans still believed Madrid would go through—but few doubted City would make it tough.
The same applied to Chelsea vs. Juventus.
Sure, Chelsea had just obliterated Barça and were riding high.
But Juventus had also dismantled Porto over two legs with a 4–0 aggregate win, and they were cruising in Serie A, already miles ahead of the pack.
Premier League kings vs. Serie A kings—this was as high-profile as it got.
The only issue? Fans had to wait nearly a month for these quarterfinals to kick off.
And in the meantime, Chelsea and Juventus were both fully focused on cleaning up their domestic leagues to reduce pressure for the stretch run.
Compared to Chelsea, Juventus' league campaign was already on cruise control.
Serie A had just wrapped up Matchday 27, and Juventus led second-place Roma by 15 points.
Chelsea, meanwhile, had completed 29 Premier League fixtures and were just 11 points ahead of City.
Of course, Chelsea still had a game in hand. If they beat Leicester in the rescheduled match, the gap would widen further.
But that was all hypothetical.
Inside Chelsea's camp, no one was thinking about games in hand.
No one was counting on City collapsing.
They trained hard. Focused on the present. Took every match seriously.
After winning the league last year, even the younger players knew how to pace themselves.
Now, they understood—at this stage, whether by one goal or five, every win was massive pressure on City.
And as luck would have it, Chelsea's next fixture was against a "soft target."
Matchday 30.
An away trip to Hull City, currently 16th in the table and fighting to avoid relegation.
Hull's survival instincts were kicking in. If any other top-six side visited them now, it would be a tricky fixture.
But Chelsea were different.
The players held themselves to a higher standard—and the fans expected nothing less.
If Chelsea failed to beat Hull, it would be a Chelsea problem, not Hull's brilliance.
At this point, the only people rooting for Hull were Hull fans and Manchester City supporters.
Every major media outlet, every pre-match show—virtually all predictions favored Chelsea.
March 21st. Matchday 30 began.
City were up first. They made quick work of West Brom with a 3–0 win.
Over the course of a long day of football, seven Premier League matches wrapped up.
On March 22nd, Liverpool hosted Manchester United.
Suárez put on a masterclass, bagging a hat-trick and leading Liverpool to a 3–2 win—avenging their loss in the first "Red War" of the season.
At the same time, Everton edged QPR 2–1 away.
Chelsea vs. Hull was the marquee matchup, drawing the full attention of the Premier League's global audience.
With a full week of rest, Chelsea fielded a full-strength XI.
Hull, too, went all out. They lined up in a 3-5-2, hoping to spark a tense, end-to-end battle.
But Chelsea had other plans.
Lining up in a 4-2-3-1, they didn't immediately push for dominance.
They let Hull have the ball.
Even allowed them into their own half.
Clearly a tactical ploy from Mourinho and his staff—leave it to Hull to decide what to do with the "gift" of possession.
Leon coordinated the midfield block, leading Chelsea's compact, layered defense.
Parking the bus from the start? Chelsea hadn't done that in a while.
But today, they made their respect for Hull very clear—even if Hull didn't want it.
The broadcast camera cut to Mourinho on the bench, whispering into Holland's ear behind a covered hand.
Mourinho had always been wary of relegation battlers.
His years in the Premier League taught him well—by March, these teams played like wild animals backed into a corner.
Skill gaps meant little. Survival instincts changed everything.
Most managers underestimated that.
Mourinho? He made a habit of punishing weak sides consistently, even in the season's final weeks.
So, Chelsea parked the bus—not to absorb pressure, but to study Hull's attack.
Mourinho didn't mind sacrificing 20–25 minutes to analyze their game plan.
If Hull exceeded expectations? Adjust.
If they didn't? Easy. Flip the switch, dominate, kill the game.
Leon, of course, was the anchor that made all this possible.
With him controlling the midfield, Mourinho had zero doubt the strategy would unfold perfectly.
As time ticked by, the tempo slowed.
In the 11th minute, Leon received a return pass from Kroos.
He spun away from striker N'Doye's press with ease and surged forward.
On the right side of midfield, a familiar face appeared.
Starting at left wingback for Hull that day—Andrew Robertson.
Just 21 years old, recently transferred from Dundee United after a breakout year in the Scottish Premiership.
He already had 20+ Premier League appearances this season.
Clearly, Hull believed in him.
They were managing his minutes, but giving him the space to grow.
Robertson was blessed with excellent two-way instincts.
And seeing Leon charge in, he didn't hesitate—he pressed.
Premier League neutrals watching at home saw the size difference between the two and admired Robertson's courage.
But Leon, ever the professor to Premier League newcomers, delivered a swift and humbling lesson.
Standing at 1.85 meters tall and weighing 84 kilograms, Leon was a physically dominant central midfielder.
When going up against a fullback like Robertson, who stood at 1.78 meters and didn't even weigh 65 kilograms, did he really need to rely on technical dribbling?
Not at all. Leon simply shouldered his way past Robertson while shielding the ball, nearly sending the young defender sprawling across the turf.
In the end, Robertson had no choice but to commit a tactical foul to stop him.
It was a win for Hull City in the moment—they had prevented a break—but Robertson was immediately hit with a stern warning from the referee. Not exactly a great trade-off.
Leon was perfectly satisfied with the call. As he got up, he cheekily winked at Robertson, clearly getting in his head.
The broadcast caught the moment, prompting amused laughter from fans watching at home.
Of course, Robertson wanted to respond, but he quickly reconsidered after reflecting on his own limited attacking ability—and Leon's elite defending.
He wisely swallowed his pride.
During Mourinho's designated 20-minute probing period, Hull City failed to show any meaningful attacking threat.
Which, honestly, was no surprise.
If Hull were capable of explosive performances like that, they wouldn't be hovering near the relegation zone.
Earlier in the season, they'd muscled out a decent run of results and, as newly promoted underdogs, had every right to be proud of their early efforts.
But as the Premier League season wore on, and as other teams began to understand Hull's patterns, their ranking steadily dropped.
They became easy to predict—and easier to neutralize.
With no unexpected punch in attack, Chelsea was ready to deliver the punishment they deserved.
In the 68th minute, Mourinho made his move.
Chelsea, who had thus far stayed compact and cautious, suddenly shifted gears and pushed forward.
Hull could finally feel what it was like to really face Chelsea's pressure.
When Chelsea shifted their attacking build-up into Hull's final third, the match was effectively over.
Leon and Kroos ran rings around Hull's triple-pivot midfield.
It wasn't just a gap in quality anymore—it was an outright mismatch.
Hull's attempt to reinforce the midfield with three defensive midfielders was undone by Chelsea's seamless passing triangles and intelligent movement.
In the 34th minute, after receiving a return pass from De Bruyne along the sideline, Kroos immediately picked up Leon's signal—a no-ball run into the left-side half-space.
Kroos didn't hesitate. He scooped a perfectly weighted pass over the top.
Leon, already storming toward the edge of the box, took a quick touch and then, without stopping, lobbed it forward into the penalty area.
The entire Hull backline had been drawn toward Leon's run and movement.
So when Ibrahimović ghosted into the far post zone, not a single Hull defender was marking him.
He barely needed to jump—just flicked his head, directing the ball with ease into the top near corner.
Hull keeper Allan McGregor barely moved before the ball was in the net.
Groans rang out across the stadium. In living rooms across England, City fans sighed and turned off their televisions in frustration.
Like opening Pandora's box, once Chelsea got their first, Hull's defense collapsed.
Goals rained in.
By the 60th minute, Chelsea were up 4–0.
With the job done, Mourinho's staff pulled their central stars to rest them.
Meanwhile, Chelsea's bench was all smiles. Hull had mentally checked out, praying Chelsea wouldn't keep pushing to pad their goal difference.
It was a crushing win. Leon contributed a goal and an assist, earning yet another Man of the Match award.
For Chelsea fans—and for Leon's global following—it was another perfect performance.
But for Manchester City?
It was psychological devastation.
Chelsea's record now stood at 27 wins, 2 draws. An absurd level of consistency.
The kind of form that didn't give any competitor room to breathe.
Had Chelsea drawn a couple more matches, or slipped up just once, City's morale might have looked very different.
But Chelsea refused to let up. They refused to offer hope.
After that fluke draw against Everton, Chelsea had reeled off five straight Premier League wins.
And just in time—because the international break was around the corner.
Most of Chelsea's starting lineup was called up to represent their national teams.
They scattered after March 31st, each playing two fixtures abroad before returning to London.
When the squad finally regrouped, Mourinho reviewed the post-international break fitness reports and immediately gave rest days to Ibrahimović, Matic, and Kroos.
April 4th: Matchday 31.
Chelsea, rotating half their starters, hosted Stoke City at Stamford Bridge.
Stoke had come prepared. Most of their players had two full weeks of rest, and their legs were fresh.
For the first time all season, Chelsea were slightly overpowered in midfield duels.
Leon noticed that Lampard, starting beside him, looked off the pace in defensive challenges.
So Leon dropped deeper to take over build-up duties and partnered with Van Ginkel to re-stabilize the team's tempo.
He didn't blame Lampard.
Form fluctuates.
And if he could patch the gap by working harder, then that's what he'd do.
Despite a lack of attacking thrust through the middle, Chelsea still carved out chances down the flanks thanks to Hazard and Salah.
Torres, starting up top, put in a solid shift.
Bad luck struck, though—Chelsea hit the post twice in the first half.
Frustrated groans echoed through Stamford Bridge.
Still, Chelsea persisted.
In the 76th minute, a set piece finally broke the deadlock.
Maguire, Mourinho's "secret weapon," flew in at the far post on a corner kick and outmuscled Stoke's captain, Ryan Shawcross, to head home the winning goal.
Chelsea ground out a hard-fought 1–0 win—stretching their league win streak to five.
But the real bombshell dropped an hour later.
City lost.
Away to Crystal Palace, no less.
Wilfried Zaha danced through Gaël Clichy and Matija Nastasić, and scored the match-winner with a stunning solo goal in the second half.
As the cameras cut to Guardiola's devastated face and City's attackers flailing desperately in the final minutes, the media pounced.
The headlines wrote themselves.
Under the relentless pressure of Chelsea's winning streak, City cracked.
They lost their belief. Their composure.
And now?
Chelsea, with a game in hand, led the league by 14 points.
Winning the Premier League five rounds early was no longer a dream.
It was becoming inevitable.
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