Mourinho, Roger enter sack race

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers and Chelsea chief Jose Mourinho were
the big movers in the Premier League sack race, while the bookmakers
cannot agree on the stability of Louis van Gaal’s position at
Manchester United.
With only four games into the new Premier League season and the summer
transfer window has closed, Man City are top with a 100 per cent
record, Chelsea are in the bottom half, the jury is out on Van Gaal’s
Man Utd, while both Arsenal and Liverpool have had unspectacular
starts.
There are not too many people who would have had Chelsea in the bottom
half of the table after four games and Mourinho as short as to go
first.
The Blues have had a torrid start and Mourinho has, so far, not been
able to come up with a solution. Two defeats from their first four
games would have been unthinkable a month ago, but Mourinho’s men have
looked defensively vulnerable and the new arrival of Pedro is unlikely
to solve that problem.
The failure to sign John Stones must have been a crushing blow to
Mourinho and instead the Portuguese boss signed fellow defenders
Michael Hector – who was loaned straight back to Reading – and Papy
Djilobodji, who has been omitted from the club’s Champions League
squad. Just how much game time Djilobodji will get remains to be seen
but he’s certainly not the tried and tested centre-back Mourinho
wanted in at the club.
Last weekend’s 3-0 mauling at home to West Ham has seen Rodgers joined
the race with a trip to Man United up next, there are tricky times
ahead for Liverpool.
Rodgers said his side “never got going” at Anfield and insisted his
men will be better after the international break: “Seven points from a
possible 12, and we’ll look to improve after the international break.
We’ll come back, re-focus and look to be much better.”
Any sort of defeat against arch-rivals United will see Rodgers under
increasing pressure, but with £78million spent in the summer – the
third highest in the top flight – the fans and media want more.
There’s not a history of knee-jerk reactions at Anfield though and
after chairman Tom Werner’s pre-season support, Rodgers looks safe, at