Jose Mourinho now comes under the microscope

The good news for Jose Mourinho is that he can concentrate all his energies on winning the Premier League title now that Chelsea are out of the Champions League.

The bad news is that if he lets the domestic title slip away again, and ends the season with only the Capital One Cup to show Roman Abramovich as the spoils of another expensive campaign, he will start to be on shaky ground.

Before, during and after Chelsea’s ignominious European exit to Paris Saint Germain, Mourinho bore the hallmarks of a worried man, and understandably so, given his long-term future in his dream job is at stake.

His pre-match demeanour hinted at a combination of desperation and anxiety. He was widely derided for his remark that, in the first leg a fortnight ago, PSG were the “most aggressive” side Chelsea had faced this season.

More Mourinho mind games, we sighed in exasperation, designed to put the focus on how referee Bjorn Kuipers handled the Parisians and their approach to the game. But as we have seen recently in the Premier League, this provocative tactic can backfire.

Accusing referees of favouring the opposition can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy, especially when it comes from a man whose record with officials and systems of justice leaves much to be desired. No referee or governing body likes to be accused of favouritism, however much Mourinho tries to wrap it in charm or humour. And the signs of a backlash against his complaining have been coming for some time.

It is ludicrous to imagine there is a co-ordinated campaign against Chelsea from referees or the media, but it is less difficult to imagine that many of the objects of Mourinho’s criticism are getting tired of his tantrums, the way we were seven years ago when he last left London, largely unlamented.

Mourinho’s pre-match remarks added to the bonfire that was already building underneath this match, and it did not take long to spark into a fiery contest, especially with this particular cast of villains. Diego Costa and David Luiz were at each other – and anyone else in their orbit – from the start, and it would have taken a whole team of officials to keep track of everything that was happening on and off the ball.

So it was little wonder that Kuipers got some of his biggest calls wrong, failing to award a penalty when Costa was tripped in the first half, shortly after sending off Zlatan Ibrahimovic for a clumsy rather than reckless challenge on Oscar.

It was the Brazilian’s dramatic response, worthy of a statuette of the same name, that prompted the red card, although the supporting cast in blue hardly helped Ibrahimovic’s cause.

None of this made for an edifying spectacle, absorbing though it was. Here were two of the world’s most powerful teams, owned by some of the richest people on Earth, playing in the most prestigious and popular club competition in football.

Yet it will be remembered not for the slick passing and remarkable character shown by some of the players, but the pub football mentality of the others.

Roman Abramovich has spent well over a billion euro assembling a side to reach the pinnacle of world football, and PSG’s Qatari owners have similar budgets and ambitions, but at times it looked like the players had been recruited from Sunday morning park football.

And there is the worry for Mourinho. For all his successes first time around at Chelsea, and for leading Porto and Internazionale to unlikely Champions League victories, he is being paid €15m a year to deliver the big prizes for Chelsea, not the Capital One Cup.

Last year, he spent most of his first season back at Stamford Bridge getting his excuses in early, making it clear he had inherited a squad not ready to make a realistic challenge in England or Europe. But after the expensive acquisition of Costa, Cesc Fabregas and Juan Cuadrado, and the disposal of players he considered not up to scratch, such as Juan Mata, Andre Schurrle and Fernando Torres, he cannot use that excuse now.

Mourinho is starting to consider another rebuilding process. He made it clear last night how dissatisfied he was with his side’s performance, and hinted heavily some of them will be dropped for Sunday’s game with Southampton.

The future of players such as Oscar will be under scrutiny, but more worrying for Mourinho will be his central defence, where both Gary Cahill and John Terry were found wanting yet again.

Terry is the last of Mourinho’s old guard, and his days are numbered. Frank Lampard has gone, Petr Cech is going, Didier Drogba is back for his influence rather than ability and it is questionable whether Terry will be better-placed to correct the errors he made against PSG should Chelsea be in the same situation in 12 months’ time.

So rebuilding is required, and while Mourinho has plenty of goodwill left in the bank with the club’s owner and his trusty lieutenant Marina Granovskaia, who helped bring him back, the Portuguese cannot forget the way he was summarily dismissed in 2007.

Winning the Premier League title is a minimum requirement now, and Chelsea should not blow a five point lead with a game in hand over Manchester City, who have problems of their own.

But City have come from behind twice to win the title in recent years, while Chelsea fell away at this stage last season. Sunday’s game against Southampton comes exactly a year after losing at Villa Park, the first of three defeats in six games against strugglers Villa, Crystal Palace and Sunderland.

A similar run could let in City and really turn up the heat on Mourinho. Could it happen again?