Okey's Blogspot

 
It started just after Southampton’s second goal. Chelsea fans began to turn on their team, as John Terry & Co. strained to keep up with the effervescent Saints at Stamford Bridge.

By the time the full-time whistle went, the ground was half empty, with fans having fled to the exits. In the interim, Jose Mourinho made a decision that even by his unconventional standards was strange, and left Chelsea's backline comprehensively exposed.

When Nemanja Matic – a half-time substitute for Ramires – was taken off for Loic Remy, the natives turned. Boos rang out, and calls for Cesc Fabregas, whose passing radar was so out of sync that every successful pass merited a round of applause, to be replaced instead took hold.

When Graziano Pelle raced clear to score Southampton’s third there was no anger, only grim acceptance of an increasingly obvious result. An expletive-laden chant started in the Matthew Harding Stand, with the supporters belittling the Premier League champions they had paid so much to see. Make no mistake, Chelsea are in crisis.

The Blues started well, Oscar nipping this way and that and dropping into pockets of space in search of the ball, Eden Hazard threatening to recover the form that won him the PFA Player of the Year award last season and Radamel Falcao proving effective as an upmarket Andy Carroll, contesting header after header with Jose Fonte.
Willian opened the scoring with a quite brilliant free kick but Mourinho was unmoved on the touchline, perhaps presciently aware of what was to come.

When Southampton equalised, Steven Davis sending a clipped half-volley into the bottom corner from range, Chelsea simply disintegrated in a shambolic reaction for a club that holds the name of champions.

Fabregas in midfield was simply abysmal, while John Terry and Gary Cahill were gripped by panic whenever the visitors attacked. The captain, returning after a two game absence, made a horrendous mistake befitting a player short on match fitness in the second half. He failed to deal with a simple Pelle pass and Mane nipped in to give Southampton the lead.

Cesar Azpilicueta had effectively limited the winger’s threat for the opening 30 minutes but he then swapped flanks, instead targeting the embarrassing Branislav Ivanovic. The Serbian is a man out of form but Mourinho seems blissfully unaware of his right-back’s predicament. Mane and Dusan Tadic took turns to humiliate the 31-year-old, the latter leaving him on his backside after one particularly tricky run.

Every team needs an effective core but Chelsea’s is rotten, as evidenced by the simply ridiculous decision to substitute Matic. While Ramires struggled to impose himself on the game, his replacement offered a physical edge that Chelsea had lacked for the 45 minutes prior, as he snapped into tackles and disrupted Southampton’s rhythm.

He was not at fault for the Saints’ goals and could not be blamed when Hazard meekly surrendered possession to Mane in the 72nd minute, prompting a lightning break and a fine Pelle finish. And yet he was the man replaced as Mourinho desperately clawed at the wall in search of an opening that would never come.

Remy did nothing during his time on the pitch, with Mourinho’s substitutions – Pedro also made a short cameo – doing precious little to alter the tide of the game. The man used to be able to turn a game on a change, but appears to have lost the ability to shuffle his pack effectively.


 
 It is a minor failing in an altogether more alarming slump. Mourinho is in uncharted waters, as never before has he managed such an inept group of players at this level. He has always been backed by Roman Abramovich and has always been allowed to spend lavishly but the reigns were tightened in the summer and he appears to have given up the ghost.

He did not scold his players when Southampton rattled in their second and third goals and instead sat stony faced on the touchline, his body language suggesting that he simply could not be bothered to hit out.

A dazzling post-match soliloquy followed, as he rounded on his critics and the referee, but he is insistent that he will not walk away.

“If the club sacks me, they sack the best manager this club had,” he began.

“And secondly, the message is again the message of bad results. The manager is guilty. This is the message, not just these players, the other ones before, they got [the message] during a decade.

“This is a moment for everybody to assume their responsibilities. To stick together. This is what I want.”

He is likely to be banned after insinuating that referees are afraid to give decisions to his side, but time away from the touchline may well do Mourinho good.

He is tarnishing his legacy week after week, his side a pale imitation of the team that won the title in 2014-15. They are an unmitigated disaster, and it is hard to see light at the end of this pitch black tunnel.