The in vogue Premier League crisis of the moment is probably the one surrounding Chelsea. The champions have lost half of their eight league games so far, they’ve played dismally at the back, their star players are shells of their former selves, and the club has been moved to give their manager - their title-winning, club legend of a boss - the dreaded vote of confidence.

Now is the time to hope that the squad comes back from the international break refreshed from being away from the club. Mourinho’s Chelsea was a machine last season, but modern wisdom tells you that if your machine is faltering, switching it off and then back on again is probably the smartest thing you can do.

In the final game before this current break, however, Mourinho seemed to get the order the wrong way around - he brought Nemanja Matic on before swiftly taking him back off again.

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It’s just that sort of chopping and changing that smacks of a team in crisis. The reordering, the changing, the self-doubt. Last season, Chelsea’s title charge was characterised by a loyalty to the starting players and Mourinho’s stubborn refusal to rotate his squad. It maybe cost Chelsea a Champions League run, as a tired Chelsea midfield succumbed to 10-man Paris Saint-Germain just days after a Premier League fixture. But it was vintage Mourinho: no one could every accuse Mou of not knowing his best team. Except maybe now.

This is the sort of time where things fall apart for the Special One. He’s never really lasted very long at a club. At the end of the second season he seems to lose his aura, or at least at some point in his third season. He falls out with the board, the fans, the players or the media. Or all of them. He’s confrontational, and confrontations with Jose seem to end in the complete destruction of at least one of the parties. Mourinho doesn’t do compromise, and he always seems to say what he things - or at least hint at it.

He’s never really been able to mend the fences with the people he’s fought with, however. At least not in time to save his job in the short term.

And mending fences is what he needs to do right now.

He has to mend fences with Nemanja Matic. It wasn’t simply the fact that he humiliated the Serbian by subbing off the sub, he then justified his decision in the press by saying that he had to keep Oscar on the pitch because he’s more creative than Matic, and Fabregas had to stay on the pitch because he’s mentally stronger than Matic.

Harsh words from the loyal manager - Matic may indeed be less of a creative force than Oscar, but to say he’s less mentally tough than one of his teammates, especially a teammate who routinely goes missing in the second half of the season, is fairly incendiary.

But Mourinho has to mend fences with the board too. He has the look of a man who has been frustrated in the transfer market. He didn’t get John Stones or Marquinhos and had to make do with papy Djilobodji who has only played a few minutes of Capital One Cup football since his arrival.

Mourinho cuts the same sort of figure as Roberto Mancini did at the end of his tenure at City. Annoyed at the club’s failings in the transfer market and the inability to bring in Robin Van Persie - who turned out to be the signing who regained the title back for neighbours Manchester united - Mancini made enemies at the club and found himself managing a failing team to a poor, trophyless season, and finding himself out of a job before the end of the season.

Mourinho is in a similar position. He’s clearly unhappy with his squad, and his team selections, playing Mikel and Ramires-  who barely featured last season - chopping and changing his back line, and playing Kurt Zouma at full back all look like cries for attention.

Mourinho has always thrived on confrontation. He even courts it in order to keep the media spotlight on anything other than his own players. But he’s struggling to do this now. Another approach is needed. Mourinho needs to build bridges with those around him this time, but he’s more adept at burning them. Now’s the time when we will really see if Mourinho has matured.

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