Terrace Talk: Chelsea - Conte fights back but I’m losing respect for Jose

If this season was an episode of Friends it would have be called ‘The one with deja vu’. 

It was taking an all too familiar path - poor performances, dressing room leaks, ‘palpable discord’ between manager and players, the board failing to land the players we needed in the transfer window and rumours of the gaffer getting the sack before the Christmas decorations had even gone up, never mind come down.

The clash with United was a pretty pivotal game, coming as it did after an abject performance in Europe, Conte publicly questioning the players’ desire and an angry dressing room dressing down. Many feared the worst, but I had a sneaky suspicion we’d see a turnaround in our fortunes. Firstly, there was the Mourinho factor. There is no love lost between some of our players and our ex-manager and this was an ideal opportunity to hurt him, publicly.