'Chelsea Must Keep Mourinho'  (Sky Sports)

Chelsea would be wrong to sack Jose Mourinho despite their poor start to the season, according to Sunday Times football correspondent Jonathan Northcroft.

The Blues have suffered a disastrous start to their Premier League title defence, with Chelsea down in 16th in the table having lost four of their opening eight games, including Saturday's 3-1 home defeat to Southampton.

Mourinho declared in his post-match interview that he would not walk away from Stamford Bridge under any circumstances, and Northcroft said on Sunday Supplement that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich should stick with the Portuguese boss.

"If they do get rid of him, they are going down a different route as a club. That would be them acknowledging that they're just going to have a manager every year, and of course they've got to think about attracting the next guy if they did sack him," said Northcroft.

"A new manager might even be put off if they sack this manager that they've brought back. It might put off a [Pep] Guardiola, who might be available next summer.

"So they've probably got to tread carefully. But leaving all of that aside, Mourinho is right, he's the best manager in their history. He's had a terrible start to the season and he's not doing well at the job put in front of him right now, but that's no reason to ignore the job he's done before, and that's no reason to suppose there's something better around the corner."

Northcroft also believes that the motivational techniques that usually work for Mourinho, and did so well as Chelsea stormed to the Premier League title last season, are currently backfiring against him.

"At the moment he's not doing the right things to motivate the right people, and that's very unlike him. He has got to make sure that the players are going to pull for him against Aston Villa in the next game.

"There was a little bit of booing yesterday (Saturday), and I've never heard Jose Mourinho booed at Stamford Bridge. Having the crowd with him has been so much a part of his charm and appeal at Stamford Bridge to the directors, so that's another element he's losing.

"Mourinho's problem at the moment is he's treating some of them with the stick and it's not working, he's treating others with the carrot like [Branislav] Ivanovic, who keeps playing, and it's not working for them either."