Chelsea: Latest defeat changes nothing for Mourinho

Football managers at the top of the game get hefty pay-checks not only due to the limited supply and high demand for their services, but also because their job isn't as safe as a normal one. It's also one job in which people actively root for your stay or your dismissal on a whim, or whichever way emotions may swing on any given day. Luckily, José Mourinho still holds support from most of the public that matters, despite a string of losses that would've seen many a manager fired, and certainly would've resulted in a change had this been any other year at Chelsea and had Mourinho been any other manager.

And, according to Simon Hart from the Independent, his job status didn't change even after the Stoke City loss:

Admittedly, second-guessing the whims of Chelsea's owner, Roman Abramovich, is as straightforward as a game of Russian roulette, but the message from club sources on Saturday was that this latest setback, courtesy of a Marko Arnautovic goal, had changed nothing.

From being sure to getting sacked no matter how the games against Dynamo Kiev and Stoke City would turn out to getting a second wind from the fans' support at Stamford Bridge, Mourinho's current phase with Chelsea can only be described as an emotional roller-coaster.  For the fans, in any case. Probably less so for Mourinho, who has maintained his confidence of being secure in his job all along.

That said, just because job status didn't change, it doesn't mean that he's completely saved as the previous status quo could still have the manager leaving the club in the next few weeks over the international break or as we hit the busy holiday schedule.  Certainly, results must improve.

"We showed [we deserved to win] in the last game in the Champions League [in beating Dynamo Kiev] and at Stoke we played good football but we didn't have any luck."

"What is going well is that the team is together [and] everyone understands the situation we are in. We are trying to be more together, to work hard and to make the situation better but in this moment we are not having any luck."

-Nemanja Matic; source: Independent

Aesthetically and statistically speaking, Chelsea have improved over the last few weeks and this is certainly a promising sign for the future. Whether it will be enough for us to reach the top four as once expected by José Mourinho ... well, perhaps we shouldn't hold our breath and wait for such high expectations to be met at this point in the season — with or without The Special One on the sidelines.