On the horizon of Chelsea’s first league title for five years, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho may be feeling fantastic with his fairly comfortable lead in first place, but understands the plight of his fellow competitor, Manuel Pellegrini, trying to keep his job with reigning champion Manchester City.
Pellegrini has taken a fair amount of criticism for City’s latest struggles, only snagging four victories in the past 12 contests, and the 61-year-old has consequently witnessed his side drop from second to fourth place in the standings.
At the beginning of the season, some believed the Sky Blues had the star power to gun for a repeat, and as is often the case for PL teams, each year presents new challenges that, controllable or not, alter the campaign’s outlook.
[RELATED: City “let down” Pellegrini, says Joe Hart]
Mourinho has led Chelsea to great heights, and even though City was within distance of the top spot for most of the season, the Manchester-based outfit’s recent spell of weak form has subdued hopes for a late steal-away.
The former Real Madrid boss mentioned that the nature of professional soccer makes it viable for any manager to face the ax following a short stint of underpeformance. He was also quick to criticize the media for City’s problems.
“I’m not surprised because it can happen to anyone,” Mourinho said.
“Every game is difficult. What I’m surprised about is that a team that won two titles in three years, a team that are still champions and won two trophies last season, you (the media) can bring this team to hell.
“It looks like they don’t deserve respect, that they are bad players, that the manager is a bad manager, that they are a disaster. And they are the champions. I don’t understand.”
It appears winning championships every season is the only method of undoubtedly keeping the managerial post at City consistent. Such expectations become exceedingly difficult to satisfy, as Kyle Bonn wrote last month.
