Jose gets little time to revive Chelsea

The Blues host Sunderland on Saturday just a point above the relegation zone in 16th place following defeat at Leicester on Monday night, which was a ninth for the defending Premier League champions.

Mourinho felt his "work was betrayed" by the players not following his directions on how to nullify the Foxes' attack, with Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez both on target in the 2-1 victory at the King Power Stadium.

In October, Chelsea issued a statement of the club's "full support" behind Mourinho, but accepted "results have not been good enough and the team's performances must improve", but this campaign has developed into west London club's worst start to a season since 1978, at the end of which they were relegated.

Alarming

Owner Roman Abramovich continues to hold regular conversations with the board, chairman Bruce Buck, directors Marina Granovskaia and Eugene Tenenbaum as well as Chelsea's technical director Michael Emenalo over the best course of action to arrest the team's alarming slump in form.

There was, though, no emergency meeting scheduled for yesterday, when the club's position was unchanged as Mourinho took training at Cobham.

Mourinho, who returned to take charge at Stamford Bridge in 2013, penned a new four-year deal in the summer.

Should Chelsea decide to make a change, then it is understood the terms of any severance package would be likely to follow previous models where the former manager would continue to be paid until he found another job or to the end of the contract period, which was an option taken up by Roberto di Matteo following his departure in November 2012.

The likes of Pep Guardiola, Diego Simeone and Antonio Conte have all been touted as potential successors, although an interim appointment would perhaps be more likely as a stop-gap until the end of the season, with options such as former managers Carlo Ancelotti and Guus Hiddink.

Should results go against Chelsea this weekend, then the west London club could end up in the bottom three for Christmas.

Behave

Defender Gary Cahill, though, maintains the players have what it takes to pull themselves clear of becoming embroiled in a relegation dogfight.

"Last season was fantastic, this season has been tough, but we're looking to turn that around. We're working hard to make things right," Cahill said in the official Chelsea magazine.

"Not every single minute of your career will go well, individually and collectively, and not every season will go how you want it to, but it's how you react to that.

"When things aren't going well, you work even harder and look for a reaction. I'm sure we'll turn it around."

Midfielder Nemanja Matic echoed Cahill's determination for a positive second half of the campaign.

"I cannot explain why consistency has been so difficult to achieve," he said on the club's official website.

"We are sad because of the defeat (to Leicester), but we have to keep going, to try to win some games and to recover from this situation which is not easy for us.

"We have to try to be better than we were."