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Most observers reckon Rafa Benitez has bitten off more than he can chew at Chelsea. Even when he registered his first win, a 6-1 demolition of Danish side Nordsjaelland, the headlines were still of the Blues exiting the Champions League. Will he see out his contract to the end of the season? Is Chelsea an ungovernable club? And who will be the next manager? The Life’s a Pitch team take a look.

“It’s just living day-to-day,” says the Mirror’s John Cross of Benitez’s plight at Stamford Bridge. ”It is as precarious as that. One bad result seems to shift an emphasis towards Avram Grant, towards moving for Guardiola earlier. Chelsea are just an absolute shambles at the moment. Rafa Benitez is saying all the wrong things, doing all the wrong things. He’s never going to be accepted by the Chelsea fans, so it’s a really, really short-term fix, this one.”

But with nobody expecting Benitez to stay beyond the summer, the focus is on who will replace him. The Guardian’s Dominic Fifield very much doubts it’ll be Pep Guardiola. “I just don’t think Pep Guardiola will end up at Chelsea. That was the ideal, what Abramovich wanted and probably still wants. But the reality is that unless Guardiola has decided that money is the be-all and end-all and he quite fancies a substantial pay-off for getting sacked next February I just don’t see him going there. But I think, come the end of the season, the way we’re going, it’s far more likely that Roman Abramovich goes in for José Mourinho than Pep Guardiola.”

Owner Roman Abramovich has been roundly criticised for his ruthless approach to replacing managers, but the Sunday Mirror’s David Walker says it’s his club to run as he wishes. “The only reason Chelsea are in this modern era of success is down to Roman Abramovich. Now the downside of that is you’ve got a Russian Oligarch running your club as what would appear to us as at his whim. Now, if you don’t like it, don’t support Chelsea. Basically, Roman Abramovich saved a club that was on the brink of going out of business, he’s transformed the place. And the downside is, he wants what he wants. And you either put up with it or clear off.”

Watch the full video discussion by clicking on the play button in the image above.

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