Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho faces more trouble from the Football Association (FA) after being sent to the stands as the champions’ poor Premier League form worsened on Saturday with a 2-1 loss at West Ham United.
On a day when London rivals Arsenal went provisionally top of the standings, Mourinho was red-carded at halftime after Cesc Fabregas had a goal disallowed for offside, moments before Chelsea teammate Nemanja Matic was sent off for a second bookable offense.
The Chelsea manager watched the second half from the stands, before leaving his spot eight minutes from the end. His assistant first-team coach, Silvino Louro, was also dismissed, when Matic was red-carded.
Photo: Reuters
Mourinho will almost certainly face repercussions from the FA as the incident follows a suspended sentence earlier this month. The Portuguese coach was fined £50,000 (US$77,000) and given a suspended one-match stadium ban for comments about referee Robert Madley following a 3-1 loss at home to Southampton.
He did not appear for the news conference after Saturday’s game.
Mauro Zarate gave West Ham the lead, before Fabregas thought he had equalized. Gary Cahill then leveled for Chelsea 10 minutes into the second half, before Andy Carroll headed the winning goal in the 79th minute.
“Cesc’s goal, we thought it was marginal and the second yellow card [for Matic] we thought the referee had carried on,” Cahill said. “We don’t feel sorry for ourselves, we can’t. It is just a bit of frustration, it is the way the season is going at the moment. The luck is certainly not with us and we work even harder to turn it around. It is a tough time at the minute.”
In Saturday’s late match, Arsenal beat Everton 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium to go top of the Premier League ahead of yesterday’s games.
Olivier Giroud and Laurent Koscielny scored in the 36th and 38th minutes for Arsenal, before Ross Barkley’s deflected strike before halftime gave the visitors hope of a comeback, but Arsenal held on against Roberto Martinez’s Everton, who had Gareth Barry sent off in stoppage-time.
“I was bit edgy because I thought the last 20 minutes could be difficult and we could not score the third goal,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. “I’m very proud of the players today because they showed focus and they were a little bit jaded physically [after winning against Bayern Munich on Tuesday]. We were caught on the counterattack 2-0 up and that was less comfortable.”
Wenger’s Gunners lead the table with 22 points, ahead of the Manchester derby yesterday. City, on 21 points, face United, with 19 points, at Old Trafford.
Chelsea are 15th on 11 points from 10 matches and bookmakers have made Mourinho the second-favorite to be the next Premier League manager to be sacked.
The current favorite is Aston Villa’s Tim Sherwood.
Villa lost their sixth league game in a row in a 2-1 defeat at home to Swansea City as the pressure intensified on Sherwood.
His side went ahead when Jordan Ayew scored a diving header in the 62nd minute, moments after his brother, Andre Ayew of Swansea, saw a one-on-one chance denied by US international goalkeeper Brad Guzan, but Gylfi Sigrudsson scored a stunning free-kick six minutes later and Andre Ayew got the winner three minutes from the end.
“It is not about me personally, it is about the football club and the players, we are all in it together and we are in a bit of a mess at the moment,” Sherwood said.
Elsewhere, Jamie Vardy took his scoring form to nine goals in seven games as Leicester City beat Crystal Palace 1-0.
Norwich City lost 1-0 at home to West Bromwich Albion and Watford won 2-0 at Stoke City.
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