Jose Mourinho’s future as Chelsea manager looked increasingly insecure after a 3-1 defeat by Liverpool on Saturday, Philippe Coutinho scoring twice at Stamford Bridge as the champions lost a sixth Premier League game in 11.
Chelsea’s third home league reverse of the season left them in 15th place in the table with 11 points from 11 games — the worst ever start to a season by the reigning champions.
They are already 14 points behind Manchester City who needed a last-gasp Yaya Toure penalty to beat Norwich City 2-1 and retain top spot on goal difference from Arsenal who won 3-0 at Swansea.
Photo: AP
Toure’s spot kick spared the blushes of City ‘keeper Joe Hart who fumbled a routine catch to gift Norwich a late equalizer.
All of Arsenal’s goals came after the break as they made it five league wins in succession, with Olivier Giroud, Laurent Koscielny and Joel Campbell all on target.
Leicester City moved up to third thanks to a 3-2 victory at West Bromwich Albion where they trailed, with Jamie Vardy scoring for the eighth league match in a row.
Photo: Reuters
UNITED
Manchester United dropped to fourth after a 0-0 stalemate at Crystal Palace, their second successive goalless league draw.
Chelsea, laboring in the Champions League, out of the League Cup and as good as finished in the title race, are in free fall and Liverpool’s fans, celebrating a first league win for new manager Juergen Klopp, taunted Mourinho with chants of: “You’re getting sacked in the morning.”
Photo: Reuters
Former Chelsea winger Pat Nevin summed up the mood, saying: “The questions over Mourinho will be a cacophony now. It’s not just the defeat, but the manner of it. They were absolutely outplayed.”
Triple Premier League winner Mourinho was tight-lipped afterwards, but asked if it could have been his last game in charge, he said: “No.”
The day had started so well for Chelsea.
There were only four minutes on the clock when Cesar Azpilicueta’s was headed in by Ramires.
If the home fans expected Chelsea to force home their advantage, though, they were disappointed as a hardworking Liverpool side recovered to dominate possession.
Coutinho equalized two minutes and 40 seconds into the indicated two minutes of first-half stoppage time, curling a precise shot past Chelsea ‘keeper Asmir Begovic.
Liverpool midfielder Lucas was lucky to avoid a second yellow card midway through the second half for a foul on Ramires — a decision that infuriated Mourinho.
To rub salt into the wounds, Liverpool went in front a few minutes later when Coutinho again beat Begovic with a shot that brushed off John Terry, captaining Chelsea for the 550th time.
Christian Benteke made the points safe with a low shot seven minutes from time.
MOURINHO ANGRY
“What happened in the second half was a consequence of crucial moments, moments that the stadium saw, and more than just see it, the players felt it. From then what happened was just a consequence,” Mourinho told reporters.
Asked if he could turn around Chelsea’s unravelling season, he cryptically said: “If they allow us.”
Klopp was sympathetic. “I feel for him. He’s a great coach. I don’t think anyone in this room doubts he’s one of the best in the world. Things like this happen. I had a similar situation at [Borussia] Dortmund last year,” the German said.
While Chelsea lurch from crisis to crisis — they have lost nine times in all competitions including their midweek defeat on penalties by Stoke City in the League Cup which they won last season — Liverpool are buoyant.
They are on 17 points and have moved up to seventh after a run of six matches unbeaten in the league.
West Ham United lost 2-0 at Watford while Newcastle United stayed in the bottom three after a 0-0 draw at home to Stoke City.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier