Chelsea buffeted by harsh winds of competition and economic stress

After an uninspiring draw against Southend in the FA Cup, Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari could find himself unemployed soon. Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images The Limey's Mailbag Keep the banter flowing to The Limey. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

The headline English Premier League game this weekend sees second-place Chelsea visiting Old Trafford to face third-place Manchester United on Sunday. Usually a close affair, their first EPL meeting of the season was a 1-1 draw, as was their nail-biting Champions League final matchup last May.

Chelsea sits four points ahead of United, but Man U has two games in hand on Chelsea, a fact that will weigh very heavily at Stamford Bridge should the Blues lose on Sunday.

Chelsea rolls into the match smarting from a 1-1 FA Cup draw against League 1 Southend, its sixth draw in its last 12 matches, a stretch in which the Blues have won only four matches. That isn't the form of a team trying to challenge for silverware, and boss Luiz Felipe Scolari suddenly finds himself the bookmakers' favorite to be the next EPL manager to lose his job. Still, Scolari believes his players love him.

"They don't come into my office and say, 'Phil, oh, I love you,' but I can feel it," he told the U.K. press last week.

A familiar face will join the festivities in the stands at Old Trafford in the form of a a certain Mr. José Mourinho, who will be making his first visit to the grounds since his sacking as Chelsea boss. Scouting in advance of Inter Milan's matchup with the English champions in next month's Champions League round of 16, the self-proclaimed "Special One" can empathize with Scolari, and not just in terms of narcissism. The Blues' hierarchy could be on the verge of dispensing with yet another manager for not providing consistent success and permanently exciting soccer.

Scolari's quest for improvement won't be helped by the global economic crisis, which seems to be hitting oligarch owner Roman Abramovich particularly hard. Abramovich's diminishing roubles, combined with his seemingly waning interest in Chelsea's, has led to rumors that no funds will be available at Stamford Bridge for transfers in January, not even the $15 million just received for Wayne Bridge from Manchester City.

• Table-topper Liverpool travels to Stoke, for what should be another three points for the Reds, especially with Stoke missing top scorer Ricardo "Marciano" Fuller after he was sent off for landing a left hook on captain Andy Griffin. The Reds are looking impressive in the EPL, and after the Christmas period are serious title contenders. A deserved point in their pre-Christmas trip to the Emirates was followed by a 5-1 demolition of Newcastle United at St. James' Park. Not all is sunshine and light, as Liverpool must cross its fingers that Steven Gerrard's alleged 2 a.m. demolition act on a night club DJ following the Newcastle win will not derail its title challenge.

At the bottom of the EPL table, little has changed a tight race, with Bolton in 11th with 23 points, only five points ahead of bottom club West Brom.

• Soccer can be cruel. Small-town Lancashire side Burnley, conquerors of Fulham, Chelsea and Arsenal in previous rounds, arrived at Tottenham Tuesday for their Carling Cup semifinal first leg. At halftime, the Clarets led their illustrious hosts 1-0. A mere 20 minutes later, though, Spurs were up 4-1, and that's how it finished -- the reverse score to when the clubs met in the 1983 quarterfinals. Spurs, who welcomed back striker Jermaine Defoe prior to the game, will now travel to Turf Moor with an almost guaranteed chance to retain their crown in the final. Burnley will be left to reflect on having reached the semis four times without having ever progressed.

• The other semifinal was again Championship vs. Premier League with Derby County facing Manchester United. The Rams won 1-0, and now, under new manager Nigel Clough, will likely travel to Old Trafford full of confidence before probably getting trounced. Despite the win, Derby's Rob Hulse left frustrated at missing a chance to make the final 2-0 when he fired over late, but likely wasn't as irked as Cristiano Ronaldo was when missing a second-half free-kick by inches. The next day, Ronaldo crashed his Ferrari 599 GTB, which totaled the $300,000 car, but not the player, who attended training that day.

• Despite him being a wet blanket of a player, Team Limey is pleased to see Clough attain his first league management position. The former England forward patiently served a successful decade-long management apprenticeship at non-league Burton Albion before accepting the position at Derby that his father once famously held. Brian Clough took Derby to the '72 title and the semifinals of the European Cup the following season. Later, he led Nottingham Forest to back-to-back European Cup successes, a great achievement considering Nottingham is the smallest city to ever win what is probably club soccer's most prestigious club trophy.

A brash, but much-loved and eloquent man, the late Clough senior is fondly remembered for his quotes. We'll let him describe himself: "I certainly wouldn't say I'm the best manager in the business, but I'm in the top one."

• The FA Cup's third round was played last weekend, providing several upsets in which lower-league clubs dispatched bigger players from the knockout competition. Following their 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea faces the ignominy of a replay at Southend, yet will be glad not to be in Stoke's shoes. The Potters lost 2-0 to Hartlepool which, coincidentally, sits only a point behind Southend in the League One table.

But, like so many times before, it was Manchester City who provided the day's biggest blooper, losing 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest. Forest is no longer the formidable side that Clough created ("They say Rome wasn't built in a day, but I wasn't on that particular job") and only goal difference separates them from the Championship's relegation zone. City paraded Wayne Bridge on the pitch before the game, the first of a likely string of players arriving at the world's richest club this January. Gianluigi Buffon, Shay Given, Jolean Lescott, Kolo Touré, Yaya Touré, Scott Parker, Craig Bellamy, Roque Santa Cruz, David Villa and David Trezeguet have all been strongly linked with a move to East Manchester in recent days.

Manager Mark Hughes is looking to increase squad loyalty following some bouts of locker room dissent from Elano, Jô and Tal Ben Haim. Perhaps Hughes could learn a trick of two from old Cloughie, whose stance was, "If I argue with a player, we sit down for 20inutes, talk about it, and then decide I was right."

Letters

Paul Thivierge of Huntley, Ill., wasn't happy with our comments last time on Man. United falling off the pace due to its commitments in the FIFA Club World Cup, which found it two games behind its title rivals. "As long as the games are in hand," Paul wrote, "they aren't technically falling off the pace. If they were forfeiting the two games, then, and only then, would your argument be valid."

We agree, Paul, but our argument was based around the psychological disadvantage United faces from trailing league leader Liverpool by seven points, and knowing it has to win its games in hand to claw back six of those seven points. Plus, there's the physical strain of completing extra games in the same time period (and remember that United has progressed further than Chelsea or Liverpool in the Carling Cup). If things don't go United's way against Chelsea on Sunday, the defending champs are likely to find themselves nine or 10 points off the pace.

Matt Diphane from Manahattan Beach, Calif., wrote in from a far more glamorous-sounding setting than the sub-zero bowels of Castle Limey that we're writing this column from. With Roy Keane gone, facial hair now seems to be the recipe for success in the EPL, given that the clubs run by the only two managers left in the league sporting facial growth sit first and second.

But why did Keane look so miserable? Matt answers: "Please notice the subtleties with which Rafa [Benítez] and Big Phil sport their facial hair and compare that to the woolly-mammoth-like adventure that was Roy Keane's beard."

And what of West Ham, Matt? "I weep for poor West Ham, which, alas, is stricken with a manager yet to strike puberty. Methinks it's the Championship for them."