Jose’s stock is now in free fall
led to another clever finish but even at 2-1 there was no sense that United were going to flex their muscles.
Marko Arnautovic wrapped up the points with a third goal despite playing through the pain barrier – “it’s about me, it’s not about the medical staff,” he said later.
Having played United off the park after stealing Chelsea’s 100 per cent record and then rolling over Macclesfield 8-0, it has been a very different week for Pellegrini.
Rewind just two weeks and it was Pellegrini in crisis.
What changed? Absolutely nothing, and that is the point, according the Chilean himself. He said: “Maybe it’s very easy to say, ‘No, we must change’.
“The players are always testing you and they needed to feel I was not afraid because we could not win the first four games. It’s very easy to lose faith. Very easy. “But always they heard me say exactly the same from the first day of pre-season – I was
not going to change.” Bottom line, there is no such thing as a turnaround – it is about managing your players into believing in your vision.
Pellegrini has done Mourinho cannot.
Yes, as Gary Neville has suggested, the ultimate problem may lie higher upstairs.
But even if he is not the root cause of Old Trafford’s current ills, £12million-a-year Mourinho is simply not doing his job of managing the team.
Which is why it should be time for him to seek another. Whoever will have him.
WEST HAM (4-3-3): Goals: UTD Booked: NEXT UP: Referee: (5-3-2):
that.