Chelsea got humiliated by Watford on Monday Night when they suffered a humiliating loss to the London club.
This came as the blues Boss Antonio Conte asked for a vote of confidence Instead he got the kind of loss that can make his sack faster. The Chelsea head coach is under severe pressure now, fighting for his job, if he wants to keep it beyond this season, and make no mistake about that.
Will Conte still be in charge when Chelsea host West Bromwich Albion next Monday? Surely he will but this is Chelsea. Nothing can be assumed. This is a club that will not risk failure and are not afraid of change. They will not risk finishing outside the top four. And they are also less likely to risk it for a manager who has pushed them and tested their patience.
Defeats happen. But it is the manner of the defeat that counts. And this was shocking in its capitulation with Conte later complaining that his team played with fear, without personality, without confidence. That sounded like resigned talk. It was the kind of talk that Roman Abramovich, who is in London, but who was not at this game, will not want to hear. And neither, history has told us, is he afraid to act; especially at this crucial point of the campaign.
Chelsea have won only two of their last 10 games – and knocked Norwich City out of the FA Cup on penalties. With this defeat they have conceded seven goals in their last two Premier League matches: three against Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge and now four, here, against a rampant Watford who were re-energised under their new head coach Javi Gracia.
