Guest Article: Big Phil: Big Problems? By Andrew Walker

It could be worse. Chelsea lie one point off the summit of the Premier League, are in the midst of a remarkable run of domestic away victories, and have progressed to the last sixteen of the Champions League. For most teams that would be a pretty good position to be in, but the way Chelsea’s season is unfolding provokes cause for concern.

Following yet another frustrating home performance against West Ham, serious questions are being asked about Chelsea’s credentials. Much will be written about what is happening on the pitch, but how is the man at the helm – Luiz Felipe Scolari – shaping up in the Premier League pressure cooker?

There is evidence to suggest that Scolari is in fact struggling under the microscopic scrutiny of Europe’s most talked about league.

Much was made of Scolari’s perceived lack of experience at club level. However, before he embarked on a successful career in international management with Brazil and Portugal, Scolari had amassed almost twenty years of club management experience in Brazil, Japan & Saudi Arabia.

We always hear that pressure is no greater than in Brazil, where football is not so much sport as religion. But he last managed there in 2001 at Cruzeiro before taking on the Brazil national job. Now aged 60, living in a new country and learning a new language, the rigours of day-to-day club management are more likely to take their toll.

Cracks are certainly starting to appear in the great man. For the first month of the season, the football flowed beautifully and Scolari’s charm offensive swept the media off its feet. Then Chelsea’s proud unbeaten home record was ended by Xavi Alonso’s deflected drive, and since then, Scolari the charmer has become increasingly tetchy.

He accused the officials of ‘killing’ his side in the next home reverse at the hands of a van Persie-inspired Arsenal. He snarled at accusations of Didier Drogba’s alleged meeting with Inter Milan Director Marco Branca, sarcastically stating that he does not sleep with his players.

To compound Scolari’s increasingly strained comments, it is patently clear that he is suffering physically in his new role. Ray Wilkins recently admitted that he honours many of Big Phil’s media engagements as the manager regularly suffers from fatigue. He yesterday confessed to a kidney stone problem – a common symptom of stress.

Ahead of the vital Champions League match against CFR 1907 Cluj, the Brazilian mused that, should his side lose, he would be on the next flight back to his homeland. Those comments may have been said with tongue in cheek, but they may prove prophetic.

This particular observer predicts that, regardless of how Chelsea’s season ends up, by this time next year they will have a new man in charge.