For a man who has waged war on such diverse targets as referees, Uefa and the Royal Berkshire Ambulance Service over the past three years, it is odd to hear José Mourinho describe himself as mellow. Machiavellian, megalomaniacal and – to his legion of admirers in Portugal – possibly even Messianic, but surely not mellow.

In the glamorous surroundings of the Beverly Hills Hotel, however, Mourinho’s relaxed demeanour supports his repeated claims to have turned over a new leaf, with the Californian sunshine having seemingly soothed his tortured soul. The likes of Graham Poll, Anders Frisk and Arsène Wenger will no doubt scoff, but over the past fortnight the Chelsea manager has appeared to be a changed man, exchanging pleasantries with all and sundry, laughing and joking with Avram Grant, the Chelsea director of football, and even going in goal during a match between the club’s coaching staff and the press.

“I will be more mellow this season,” Mourinho said. “I’ve thought about it and it’s something I want to do. I am what I am, but at the same time people use my personality to create something that is not true. If I am emotional or react to something I think is not fair, it’s normal. But I feel that over the last couple of years people have created an image that is not correct. I shouldn’t feed it. I’m a bit more mellow.”

Mourinho is preparing for his fourth season in charge at Stamford Bridge, his longest spell at any club during a whirlwind managerial career during which he has delivered ten significant trophies in seven years. Having flirted with resignation and dismissal during some turbulent times last season, the Portuguese is deliberately projecting a calmer image, perhaps realising that it is the only way to achieve the longevity he craves.

Although Mourinho is loath to admit it, this change in emphasis has been actively encouraged by the Chelsea board, which has tired of his close relationship with controversy. That is not likely to fade away and there have been occasions when his intensity and more wilful excesses have made him a candidate for premature burnout.

“I regret nothing in my life, but I just feel this is a different moment for me,” Mourinho said. “At the beginning of my career I was always ready for a change. I’m happy, so why should I change? A player’s career is very short and they have to do everything in the same day. Bang! Their career is over.

“My career is in the start and I have many, many years in front. I don’t have to be in a hurry and have to be calm, cool and relaxed.

“I don’t hug Wenger because he’s not a close friend, but he can say what he wants about us. He can complain about a lot of things, as he did in the past. I’m not ready to react. My relationships with other people will not change. My bottle of wine with [Sir Alex] Ferguson will still be a bottle of wine, my handshake with Wenger will still be a handshake and so on. No problem.”

Mourinho has encountered many problems with adversaries inside and outside the club since arriving in England three years ago, although progress has been made after the internal unrest that destabilised Chelsea during the winter. In a recent meeting with Roman Abramovich, the owner, Mourinho accepted the club’s new management structure, with his decision to buy a new house in West London suggesting that he intends to stick around.

“I feel great,” the manager said. “It is the first time I have started a fourth season with a club, but when I signed the second contract [in April 2005] with Chelsea it was with the intention of going on. I was moving from Porto to Chelsea and in that moment we were speaking about targets for 2015 and 2016 and we are going in that direction. I am happy with what we did. Things between me and the club are good, we can say very good. Everything is completely clear and we understand each other and have a common project.

“With the players, the professionalism is superb and I look forward to this season. It’s a great league and we want to win titles again, like we did all these three years. I am happy in London and didn’t want to move. I am very, very loved in my country, but my life is better in London because the way people approach me is different. In London you have more space. My life is a simple life.

“I don’t go for stupid places and events all the time. I go nowhere. I went to wrestling once, I went to cinema once or twice. I go to restaurants, I walk in the street. I go with my kids to school. I go shopping with my wife. Nobody disturbs me.”

Mourinho’s newfound joie de vivre is also reflected in his pledge to produce more attacking football this season, with Chelsea reverting to the 4-3-3 formation that yielded successive league titles in his first two years at the club.

“We want to play better and better and better and we want to enjoy very much every moment of this season,” Mourinho said. “I don’t think there’ll be a difference in how many points we get because over the last three years Chelsea was the team in the Premiership with more points, more victories, more clean sheets. If you put the three years together, Chelsea was the best team in the Premiership. But I want more.

“I want to get better results and to be more entertaining. Last season we played very well as a team with the resources available, but not with the same flair and the same speed and dynamic [as] in previous years. This season, with the players we have available, we have to go for it. It’s good for the club that we play different.”

Whether Mourinho’s and Chelsea’s new attitudes survive the rigours of a Premier League season remains to be seen.