Five turning points for Jose Mourinho

Mourinho was sacked by Chelsea after horrid start to season

Seven months ago it would have been a shock, but as we head enter the festive period of fixtures, Jose Mourinho’s sacking by Chelsea was nothing but expected.

Here are five turning points in the Portuguese man’s second spell at Chelsea that caused owner Roman Abramovich to send Mourinho through the exit doors at Stamford Bridge.

Failed transfer window

Chelsea fans wouldn’t have realised it at the time, but in fact the first turning point in Mourinho’s second reign at Chelsea came during the summer transfer window.

Radamel Falcao had spent an unsuccessful season on loan at Manchester United last campaign, but Mourinho showed his faith in the Colombia international by taking the 29-year-old on loan from Ligue 1 AS Monaco this campaign. However, Falcao has scored just once in 11 appearances for the Blues, and seems unlikely, whoever takes over permanently, will sign the south American on a permanent basis.

Mourinho brought in Amsir Begovic as number two to Thibaut Courtois, who was made first choice goalkeeper over the summer while Petr Cech left Stamford Bridge for Arsenal, who are now reaping the awards of having the 33-year-old’s services. Cech has statistically proven this season that he is still the best goalkeeper in the league, while Chelsea have gone on to ship 26 goals, 11 of those at home.

Left-back Baba Rahman was brought in from Bundesliga outfit Augsburg during the summer for a fee of over £20 million, but has gone on to make just nine appearances in all competitions, with just four of those coming in the league.

Pedro has struggled to adapt the competitive and physical nature of the Premier League since joining Chelsea from Barcelona over the summer. Manchester United were hotly contesting for the Spaniard’s signature but will be glad they have saved cash on a player that has failed to inspire the Blues this campaign. Pedro has managed two goals for Chelsea this season.

It is fair to say that Chelsea were not in need of many additions over the summer, having won the league so convincingly, but what players Mourinho did acquire have not lived up to their expectations or played a positive influential role in the Blues’ results.

Eva Carneiro saga

We often hear about spats between managers and players or managers and staff happening in private, but Mourinho allowed this once to go very public. With Chelsea already down to 10 men after Thibaut Courtois had been sent off for Chelsea, Eva Carneiro, the club doctor, went onto the pitch to treat Eden Hazard, meaning he would have to temporarily leave the pitch and leave the side down to nine men.

Mourinho used some rather ‘strong’ Portuguese expletives in his rage at the incident on the touchline and the uproar that followed, seeing Carneiro leave the club, caused a media storm and subsequent legal action taken by the former first team doctor.

Ironically Eva could reportedly be set for a return to the club since Mourinho’s sacking and it certainly didn’t help Mourinho’s case. However, little did the 52-year-old know what was going to follow in the coming months. Putting it simply, Mourinho’s first game of the season started off as the club meant to go on… chaos.

It would have put pressure on Roman Abramovich to act in some way, and was certainly embarrassing for the reputation of the club to be put on the line by the club’s most successful manager.

The blame game

It isn’t unusual for Mourinho to slam refereeing decisions, but this time it seemed more like a defence mechanism for a truly-defeated Mourinho. Having won the title so convincingly, no one would have even considered Chelsea’ title defence would start in such a way, and in October the digs started to come thick and fast.

Chelsea conceded two penalties and two red cards in three games, leading the Blues boss criticising referees and felt Chelsea were disliked and becoming a target, both by officials and the media. With Mourinho’s character, the English, and Spanish media for that matter, have got used to the 52-year-old’s character, but there seemed to be something laying deeper than simply ‘typical Mourinho comments’. Chelsea were really struggling, and he knew it.

Perhaps he felt his duty to protect his players got the better of him, he felt he couldn’t name and shame some of the game’s most talented players. However, his final game in charge away to Leicester City, he did not hold back and lashed out. As many felt at the time, it seems clear Mourinho was using officials as the scapegoat in his post-match rants… if indeed when he decided to speak to the media that is.

West Ham 2-1 Chelsea

It is not just about a local rivalry, nor is it just about losing to a ‘lesser’ team. But at this still early stage of the season this game proved to be the game Premier League fans realised Chelsea weren’t just having a blip to the start of their season, in fact, this looked likely to be the course for the season.

Up until that point they had drew at home to a well-respected Swansea City side, lost away to title-contenders Manchester City convincingly, lost back-to-back to Crystal Palace and Everton – who have proved to be some of league’s the form sides – beat Arsenal to restore some faith and again another loss at home to a decent Southampton side. These were defeats they wouldn’t have expected, but nonetheless, they proved they could win against their biggest rivals in local side Arsenal.

However, the Hammers defeat marked the first of three consecutive losses and at this point Chelsea’s dire run was no longer a poor start but proved that the Blues really were struggling to get anything at all. There was only so many times Mourinho could drop points to teams they should be taking all three from.

Gary Cahill’s 56th-minute strike either side of Mauro Zarate and Andy Carroll’s goals was little consolation for the fact that the defeat marked their fifth loss in 10 league matches.

A point above the drop zone

Ultimately, you could mention all the other discussion points in Mourinho’s season, as to why Chelsea have flopped so significantly this campaign, but nothing more could have called for Abramovich to call it quits more than Chelsea finding themselves a point above the relegation zone after 16 games.

It isn’t where anyone in the world of football would expect Chelsea to be and this isn’t what Chelsea are about. Since the Russian has taken over the Blues have demanded endless success, and Abramovich will feel this season has been a missed opportunity as far as the other big clubs’ inconsistencies are concerned.

If there was a sign the rot was going to end then no doubt Mourinho would still be in charge for Chelsea’s clash with Sunderland at the weekend. However, Chelsea fans have stopped looking forward for their bad run to end…. as quite simply they don’t know if it will.