IF EVER A WEEK AND A match summed up José Mourinho, it was this one. He stuck two fingers up at the authorities over a dog and then raised six fingers to mark the trophies he has brought to Stamford Bridge. He was on front pages and back. It was the sort of week that demonstrated why Chelsea have thought about ousting their manager but equally why they have not dared to do so. Typically, he finished it a winner.

At the end of it all, after he had celebrated victory in the FA Cup Final by sprinting down the tunnel to telephone his family, the Portuguese summed up the campaign for himself and for his club. “I learnt that it’s very difficult to kill me, very, very difficult,” he said. He is right, although one day he might care to ponder why some people seem to want (metaphorically, at least) to do him in.

Roman Abramovich certainly had dark intent for a while and, had Jürgen Klinsmann not been so committed to life in Los Angeles, Mourinho might have been packing his FA Cup winner’s medal in with the rest of his belongings this morning. Abramovich appears to be the only football-loving person in the country whose attitude to Mourinho is one of silent tolerance rather than loving him or loathing him – often both at the same time.

No doubt some of the owner’s large coterie of advisers, with anti-Mourinho agendas, will also have pointed out that Chelsea had failed to dazzle in victory at Wembley, but this was one day when Mourinho was not going to make any apologies for the team’s functionality – particularly given he had so many injuries to cope with and that Manchester United were themselves so lacking in fluency.

Victory was imperative given the pressure that Mourinho had been under and he made no secret of his tactics when he revealed that he had gathered his players together at the start of last week and given them two choices. “I asked them, ‘Do you want to enjoy the game or do you want to enjoy after the game?’ ” In other words, do you want to contribute to a pretty football match or do you want to win?

Mourinho spoke as though the smothering tactics were a special game plan against United, but it was simply a refinement of the risk-free strategy that has been his method for years. You might say that the new Wembley, with Sir Norman Foster’s great white rainbow, is a fitting home for an arch-pragmatist.

Mourinho had told his players that their priority was to thwart their opponents and a frustratingly stodgy pitch certainly helped their cause. “During the game it was not very enjoyable,” Mourinho acknowledged. “It was a game where you had to think a lot and control your emotions and control your positions and think about many tactical points to control your opponent. You must have a minimum of six players behind the ball line, so that if you lose the ball, you have six players behind to stop them. When you can, you double-mark on the wings, with the wingers covering with the full backs.”

If the FA had heard that before kick-off it might have been tempted to wish that Watford and Blackburn Rovers had made it to the final.

Paul Scholes and Wayne Rooney tried to bring the occasion to life and, with their one-two four minutes from the end of extra time, Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard conjured a moment of rare brilliance for the winner. Edwin van der Sar, was hesitant in coming out to confront Drogba and must surely come under pressure from Ben Foster next season.

United had the ball over the line when Ryan Giggs slid into Petr Cech but the officials could not have been expected to see that and, even if they had, they would surely have spared Chelsea’s goalkeeper by giving him a free kick.

Mourinho predicted that Chelsea would resolve their contractual issues with John Terry and Lampard and he will almost certainly have to compromise himself. Avram Grant, the former Israel manager, was watching from Abramovich’s private box. The suggestion that he may join the coaching staff in January was the main cause of the rift between owner and manager but his arrival in some capacity is said to be imminent.

It is another test for Mourinho but, as he noted afterwards, he has come through a few of those this season. “I learnt that I am ready for difficult moments, I survive difficult moments and difficult moments do not scare me,” he said. “A lot of people connected to me told me after the second title that it was the right time to say goodbye. But I told them, ‘No, I want to carry on. I love the job, so why shouldn’t I?’ ” Just so long as he carries on winning.

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