Jose Mourinho’s third season at Manchester United has so far been a disaster. Although we did grab a win against Newcastle United before the international break, the Portuguese’s job is far from safe. An embarrassing result against Chelsea could spell the end of his tenure at Old Trafford.
Although I wouldn’t go as far as saying that the Premier League fixture against Chelsea on Saturday will be the most important game in Jose Mourinho’s career (after all this a man who has won two Champions League finals), it will be his most important game as Manchester United manager.
We have had some terrible games throughout Mourinho’s previous two seasons at the club. The 4-0 loss to Antonio Conte’s Chelsea in his first season, the 2-1 loss to Manchester City at Old Trafford last season, and the shocking 3-1 home loss to Sevilla which sent us crashing out of the Champions League all come to mind.
However, all our defeats were relatively spaced out and we did have some good patches of form between them. This season, on the other hand, has been a failure right from the start.
So far, we’ve lost to Brighton & Hove Albion, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United before we’ve even reached the end of October. We were even knocked out of the League Cup by Championship side Derby County. I don’t even have to say that these results are unacceptable for a club like Manchester United.
Now we face the most the important game of the season so far in the shape of Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea, a formidable opponent who currently sit in 2nd place in the Premier League on goal difference and are undefeated in the campaign.
Losing to the Blues could see us fall to the bottom half of the table – which is exactly the sort of position Chelsea found themselves in during the 2015-16 season when they decided to sack Mourinho.
A defeat at Stamford Bridge is highly likely, given that we have lost there three times in Mourinho’s previous two seasons at the club, and we have found it difficult to clinch a win or even a draw there historically as well.
So, although a defeat against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge isn’t the most shocking result in the world, I doubt the board will care, as they have been looking for an excuse to sack Mourinho for quite some time now.
It was reported before the Newcastle game that the club were going to announce the sacking of Jose Mourinho the next day. We ended up winning the game after a thrilling comeback, meaning that even if the rumour was true, the board perhaps thought it unwise to sack him as morale was high among fans after the win.
This could all change should we suffer our fourth defeat of the season on Saturday. So Mourinho should be careful going into this game, as it could end up being the straw that broke the camel’s back…
Catch Chelsea vs Manchester United on Saturday 20 October at 12:30 BST.