BAD LOSERS THEY MAY BE, BUT Chelsea offered a reminder yesterday of why that theory is unlikely to be tested too often over the months ahead. It was a performance that failed either to stir the soul or to resolve any of the various tactical conundrums thrown up by their summer transfer activity, but José Mourinho would prefer his detractors to ignore all that and marvel at the way that his machine clicked straight back into gear after their surprise defeat by Middlesbrough.

The Chelsea manager claimed after that defeat that the team he had seen at the Riverside was “not a José Mourinho team”. It is not clear what he meant by that, but this, four days later, was a José Mourinho team — if not in terms of style, with Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack spending most of the first half getting in each other’s way, then certainly in terms of the way they imposed themselves physically in the second period as they cruised to what was ultimately a comfortable victory over a Blackburn Rovers team who find themselves bottom of the table after three matches.

Mark Hughes, the Blackburn manager, felt that the game hinged on two penalty decisions — one that was awarded to Chelsea in the 48th minute and converted by Lampard after John Terry fell to the ground during one of those typical wrestling matches at a free kick — and the other that was denied the home side late in the game when Ricardo Carvalho pulled Jason Roberts’s shirt. Hughes had a point, but Chelsea, so terribly disjointed for the first half-hour, ended the game worthy winners, with Didier Drogba outstanding after he came off the substitutes’ bench with a point to prove for the final 33 minutes.

It was Drogba’s goal, nine minutes from the end, that settled the match as he added to a miserable debut for Andre Ooijer, the Blackburn defender, by holding him off and lashing a fierce shot past Brad Friedel. “That’s why we’re champions,” the Chelsea supporters chanted, but, for most of the afternoon, the title-winning credentials on display had been rather more prosaic: the stout defending of Terry and Carvalho and the drive of Michael Essien from midfield, where he alone stood out as Lampard and Ballack did a passable impression of Lampard and Steven Gerrard in the England team in the Sven-Göran Eriksson’s years.

Mourinho admitted that the football his team had played during the opening period, in particular, was less than fluent, but he hit back at accusations over a lack of width — there was none — by asking what alternatives he had. “We prefer to play with a triangle in midfield, but with Arjen Robben and Joe Cole injured, we have no wingers to play further forward, so we had to play a diamond,” he said. “The diamond is a very difficult system to play, but Ballack and Lampard and Essien had very good games and in the second half we were in more control.”

It was an accurate appraisal, but Hughes was entitled to rue the penalty decision that turned the game as Lampard floated a harmless- looking free kick into the box early in the second half. “John Terry is obviously aware that Andre Ooijer is close marking him and he decides just to collapse to his knees and fall in a heap,” the Blackburn manager said. “It (diving) has crept into our game and it’s going to become more prevalent because players know that they can gain advantage from it.”

Roberts, though, remained on his feet when his progressed was impeded by Carvalho and that, Hughes said, was the difference between a draw and a defeat. “Chelsea’s second goal was irrelevant as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “We were chasing the game by then and we were stretched, but the reason we were like that was that the referee had a big decision to make earlier and he got it wrong in my opinion.”

For Blackburn, though, there was little else to clutch at. Benni McCarthy, who played under Mourinho at FC Porto, forced Petr Cech into an excellent save midway through the second half when he controlled a cross by Brett Emerton and prodded the ball goalwards, but otherwise the Chelsea goalkeeper was untroubled on his first appearance of the season.

It was a far cry from Chelsea’s last visit to this corner of East Lancashire on May 2, when, two days after they clinched the championship, they fell to a 1-0 defeat that started a Premiership sequence that was stretched to three defeats in four matches when they lost away to Middlesbrough on Wednesday.

Mark Schwarzer, the Middlesbrough goalkeeper, suggested after that game that Chelsea’s players had been less than gracious in defeat, but, as someone once said, a good loser is a frequent loser. Chelsea, under Mourinho, are neither, which is just one of several reasons why they remain the team to beat.