One would have imagined Oscar’s superb opening goal, a sublime, first-time finish with the outside of his boot, would have been cause for some celebration on Saturday. For Jose Mourinho it wasn’t. 

He merely shrugged his shoulders, muttered a few words under his breath and carried on the business of looking surly and a little ungrateful. 

The Chelsea boss’s demeanour changed little over the course of the match, even when his league leaders won the three points following this tough encounter against west London rivals Queens Park Rangers. It was all rather bizarre.

The truth all came out in the media conference. “I think the man responsible for the lights was in the same mood as the crowd, because everybody was sleeping,” said Mourinho, who saw the ever-impressive Eden Hazard seal the win with a second-half penalty after QPR’s Charlie Austin had put his side back in the match with a clever backheel. 

“He took 20 minutes to understand that it was dark but I took 30 minutes to understand that the stadium was not empty. When we scored was when I realised: ‘Woah, the stadium is full. Good’.”

He was even more critical of the crowd in his post-match duties when speaking to a commercial radio station. 

Chelsea had the opportunity to see off Harry Redknapp’s men much earlier than they did. 

It took a debatable penalty kick in the second half, earned by Hazard after he was shoved off the ball by Eduardo Vargas, to seal the victory. The QPR boss couldn’t quite agree with the decision by referee Mike Jones. 

“We’ve worked hard against the best team in the country,” he said. “I was pleased with everything, just disappointed. I’m not saying it’s not a penalty, I just felt it was a soft penalty.” 

Meanwhile, Mourinho’s remarks about the flat atmosphere at Stamford Bridge, however unpleasant, could be considered as shrewdly timed. 

His side are still unbeaten in all competitions and sit proudly at the Premier League summit. 

When his side begin to falter, that’s when he needs the crowd to lift his players. It’s all very well calculated with the Chelsea boss. 

“My team didn’t do well enough,” he added. “We had periods of good football, not consistently. So I was expecting more. 

“I think we deserved the points but with our quality, I would expect us be stronger.”