Jose Mourinho future: Chelsea manager will be given a month to change fortunes despite Liverpool defeat

The 3-1 loss to Liverpool will not prompt Roman Abramovich into sacking Mourinho

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho will be given another month to turn around their form (Getty Images)

Jose Mourinho insisted he would remain as Chelsea manager despite a 3-1 home defeat to Liverpool, the champions’ ninth loss in 17 matches this season.

Philippe Coutinho, who scored twice, and Christian Benteke earned Liverpool their first Premier League win under Jürgen Klopp since taking over at Anfield, and afterwards Mourinho said he “did not think” the match would be his last at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea’s next game is at home on Wednesday in the Champions League with Dynamo Kiev the visitors.

Sources at the club later confirmed there was still no appetite to sack Mourinho and that he was likely to be given at least another month to turn things around. The club’s owner, Roman Abramovich, was not at the match yesterday.

Mourinho was furious that Lucas Leiva was not dismissed by the referee Mark Clattenburg after committing what appeared to be a second bookable offence when the match was still 1-1. However, his response to questions on the issue was: “What do you think? You are not punished by FA. I am punished.”

Mourinho was last week charged with misconduct by the Football Association after his behaviour at West Ham last weekend. He said yesterday he had “no doubt” that the players were playing for him, adding, in what seemed a reference to Lucas’s escape and to Liverpool’s equaliser coming 35 seconds after the allocated two minutes of injury time had elapsed at the end of the first half, “everything is a consequence of some moments, moments that the stadium saw, the players more than see, the players feel”.

Klopp, meanwhile, dismissed suggestions that his team could now compete for the title as “crazy”.