Jose Feels the Heat

Will Jose Mourinho be at Chelsea during the next season? That's the million dollar question right now. After a string of draws with some unfancied teams, there's a lot of speculation that things aren't well between Jose and Abromovich and his board. The loss at Anfield highlighted Chelsea's poor defence and with Terry still injured, the Chelsea board isn't willing to grant Jose's request for a defender and a striker.

Moreover, Shevchenko still appears to the bone of contention, with his close friendship with Abromovich viewed with jealousy by other players and his struggle to adapt to the pace of the Premiership not winning the confidence of his manager.

Jose has been the architect of his own downfall this season by not playing the formation he used in his 2 previous successful Premiership-winning seasons. Ballack looks woefully out of sorts in the Chelsea midfield and playing without the wingers, Chelsea has been looking out of shape for quite a while now.

Gallas was one of the most important players for Chelsea over the last 2 seasons, if not the most important. But his departure to Arsenal in the summer and the arrival of Cashley Cole has weakened the defence significantly. In fact, the Terry-Gallas partnership was much better than the present Terry-Carvalho partnership.

Apparently, Jose and Abromovich haven't been looking eye-to-eye for a few months now and this is bad news for Chelsea. If Jose leaves this summer, it would be a big loss for the club and whoever else comes in place of him, be it Hiddink or Ancelotti, would find it extremely difficult to fill the boots of Mourinho.

Meanwhile, ManUtd were unlucky not to claim a point at the Emirates. Liverpool did a favor for ManUtd by beating Chelsea but Arsenal has now made a favor for Chelsea by beating ManUtd. And it does make the title-run-in much more exciting this season.