Besieged Jose Mourinho faces Klopp

Chelsea, with five defeats from their first 10 league matches, face Liverpool in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. — AFP

Loic Remy insists beleaguered Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho remains the right man to halt the spluttering champions’ slide down the Premier League table.

Just five months after leading Chelsea to the title, Mourinho is fighting to save his job and the fixture list offers little respite for the under-fire Portuguese coach with Liverpool’s visit to Stamford Bridge on Saturday looming as another potential landmine.

With five defeats from their first 10 league matches, Chelsea find themselves languishing nine points adrift of the top four in 15th place and, to make matters worse, they slumped out of the League Cup in midweek after a penalty shoot-out loss at Stoke City.

Amid reports of a dressing room mutiny against Mourinho from players unhappy with his stern man-management, the Blues have won only one of their last seven matches and Mourinho has cut an increasingly troubled and tetchy figure.

But, despite different reports surfacing that claim a number of senior players at Chelsea want Mourinho to go, French striker Remy says the boss still has the support of his squad. “It’s important for him to stay and we don’t want to give up,” Remy said. “We were champions together only last season and he is a really great manager. Of course I don’t want him to leave. I think all the players don’t want that.

“I’m really sure that Saturday will be a big game, but we can still be in the top four of the league if we win games.”

Remy has started just one league game this season, but he is in contention to face Liverpool after Diego Costa was taken to hospital with a rib injury sustained at Stoke.

While Mourinho’s future remains uncertain, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who famously stunned Mourinho’s Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals when he was in charge of Borussia Dortmund, is looking forward to a bright future at Anfield after securing the first win of his reign in midweek.

The 1-0 League Cup victory over Bournemouth was a first for Klopp in four matches since he took over from Brendan Rodgers and the German hopes it will be the catalyst for a significant improvement in results. “I saw in the eyes of all the players they wanted to win. I think the players understood better how to win. They want to do what I say,” he said. Conservative tactics Meanwhile, Manuel Pellegrini vows Manches-ter City will aim for another goal glut as the most prolific side in the Premier League set their sights on struggling Norwich City.

Pellegrini’s table-toppers suffered a rare blank last Sunday when they ground out a 0-0 draw at Manchester United. That was the first time City had failed to score this season.

Second-placed Arsenal will bid to erase the painful memory of their embarrassing League Cup exit against Sheffield Wednesday when they return to Premier League action at Swansea City.

Fixtures Saturday: Chelsea vs Liverpool, Crystal Palace vs Manchester Utd, Manchester City vs Norwich, Newcastle vs Stoke, Swansea vs Arsenal, Watford vs West Ham, West Brom vs Leicester Sunday: Everton vs Sunderland, Southampton vs Bournemouth Monday: Tottenham vs Aston Villa