Mourinho's Real Madrid have scored three against everyone but Barcelona at the Bernabeu this season
Jose Mourinho always said his side would be better in his second season. And the evolution of his Real Madrid team has been clear for all to see in a spectacular 2011-12. Especially at home.
In his first campaign at the Santiago Bernabeu, Los Blancos racked up an impressive 92 points from their 38 league matches, although that total was still four points short of the sum secured the previous season under Manuel Pellegrini. Mourinho also saw his much heralded nine-year unbeaten record in league matches at home brought to an end by, of all teams, Sporting Gijon, before falling once more in Madrid to relegation-threatened Zaragoza at the end of last season.
But results like that seem unlikely to occur in 2011-12. Mourinho's Madrid have been virtually untouchable at the Bernabeu and beyond this term, losing only to Levante on its travels and beating everyone but Barcelona at home.
The Catalan club claimed victory in December's Liga Clasico with a 3-1 success in Madrid, before beating Mourinho's men at their ground once more in the Copa del Rey the following month as they came from behind again to win 2-1.
In fact, of all the teams Madrid has welcomed to the Bernabeu in 2011-12, only Barca have failed to concede three or more goals, achieving this in the aforementioned wins and also in the 2-2 draw in the first leg of the Spanish Supercopa back in August.
In total, Madrid has racked up 78 goals in the 20 matches at the Bernabeu so far in 2011-12, winning their other 17 games in all competitions and never failing to net less than three. In La Liga, the capital club are on course to smash their own record of 107 goals in a 38-game season, set by John Toshack's side in 1989-90.
The 3-2 win at Betis on Saturday means Madrid currently boast a goal average of 3.28 which, if they can carry through to the end of the season, would represent the best goalscoring campaign in any leading league since World War II, ahead of 1958-59 Barca (3.20 goals per game) and Il Grande Torino from 1947-48 (3.14 goals per game).
On Wednesday, with a place in the last eight of the Champions League at stake, Madrid now need another win after Pontus Wernbloom's late strike earned CSKA Moscow a 1-1 draw when the sides met in the Russian capital two weeks ago. But Russian teams are notoriously poor on the road in Europe and for everyone except Barcelona, the Bernabeu is fast becoming Europe's most frightening place to play under Jose Mourinho. Home sweet home.