Chelsea's coach José Mourinho ... on the hot seat. - File LONDON (AP):
THE BALL had barely flown into the back of the Chelsea net. Owner Roman Abramovich had seen enough.
The Russian oil tycoon, whose millions turned the Blues into two-time Premier League champions, knew his team did not have the talent on the field to overturn a 2-0 deficit at Aston Villa with two minutes to go.
If Abramovich doesn't have faith in José Mourinho and his players, what hopes do the Chelsea fans have?
"The owner leaves the stadium when he wants to leave," Mourinho said after Sunday's loss at Villa Park stopped Chelsea from regaining the top stop in the standings. "I went to see England vs. Germany and I left early because of the traffic," Abramovich said.
Reason for leaving
Traffic? So was that was the owner's reason for dramatically leaving his seat and brushing the outstretched hand of former Villa owner Doug Ellis on the way out? Maybe Ellis gave Abramovich a quick way out of Birmingham so he could beat the fans on to the road back to west London.
Judging by the huge smile of satisfaction on Ellis' face, that wasn't the message.
If the Russian's body language said anything, this was Abra-movich effectively telling Mourinho that these players aren't good enough to win back the league title.
The two men appeared to have patched up last season's very public disagreement over the team's new purchases, notably Andriy Shevchenko, who was apparently the choice of Abramovich, not Mourinho. If the Russian's behaviour at Villa Park suggests he is unhappy at the way the team is playing, there could be more discord on the way.
A little over a year ago, Mourinho's coaching talent and Abramovich's deep pockets appeared to be Chelsea's passport to long-term domination of English football.
Top salaries
The Portuguese coach, who moved to Stamford Bridge from Champions League winner FC Porto in 2004, had the financial backing to buy anyone he liked and pay them top salaries. That's why Shevchenko and Michael Ballack moved to Chelsea to make Mourinho's powerful squad even stronger.
Back then, Chelsea had so much talent they could field two entirely separate lineups each as strong as the other. Since then, the arrivals at Stamford Bridge have been less impressive.
While Liverpool brought in Fernando Torres - one of the hottest properties in Spanish football - among their 11 offseason signings and Manchester United attracted Carlos Tevez, Owen Hargreaves and rising stars Nani and Anderson, Chelsea stood still by comparison.
Florent Malouda is a reasonably good signing.But he isn't a Ronaldinho, the player Chelsea reportedly were trying to buy before the transfer deadline ended on Friday. Maybe the Blues should have tried harder to persuade the Brazilian to come to England, but why should he leave Barcelona?
Now Mourinho looks at Sunday's loss at Villa and tries to convince people his team didn't deserve to lose.
"I think a point apiece should reflect what happened on the pitch," the Chelsea manager said. "I cannot say Villa didn't deserve anything. We had 10 corners. They had two. But we made a mistake."
If the game had finished 0-0, maybe he had a point. But Villa exposed weaknesses in his team's midfield and defence to score two goals while Mourinho's strikers rarely worried Scott Carson in the home team's goal.
Only two shots on target the entire game is a poor result from 70 per cent possession. The departure of Arjen Robben and the absence of the injured Frank Lampard may be reasons why Chelsea didn't cause much danger in front of the Villa goal. But Mourinho has no excuses for not having adequate replacements.
Whether Chelsea will be more potent in attack once Shevchenko comes back from his injury layoff or more dynamic in midfield when Ballack returns is open to question.
Sunday's loss - Chelsea's first in the league since January - means that Mourinho's team is back in fourth place, tied on points with Liverpool, Arsenal and Everton but behind on goal difference. It also came on the weekend defending champions Manchester United made up ground with a 1-0 victory over Sunderland, putting the Red Devils only two points behind in eighth place.
What makes things worse for Mourinho is that he doesn't have an immediate chance to rebound.
The Premier League - like Europe's other big competitions - goes on hold for two weeks because of two rounds of Euro 2008 qualifying games and friendly matches.
Mourinho now says goodbye to most of his players who will be joining up with their national teams. He can only hope they won't come limping back with injuries. Abramovich surely won't tolerate many more slip-ups.
