Clock starts to tick on ruffled Rafa

AS Rafael Benitez sits down this morning to digest reports of Mark Hughes’s demise at Manchester City, he must surely, in a private moment, consider how perilously close he is to suffering a similar fate.

While Hughes was dismissed hours after guiding his team to a 4-3 victory over Sunderland, Benitez survives to face another day despite a performance against bottom-of-the-table Portsmouth on Saturday that was so inept, his team was barely recognisable from the side that challenged for the title last season.

The Spaniard attempted to blame it all on a first-half red card for Javier Mascherano but the 2-0 defeat displayed all the symptoms of a side far more seriously ill than even its harshest critics have so far diagnosed.