Why defeat at Southampton could force Conte's Chelsea exit and leave him more like Mourinho than he'd ever admit

The sequel is never as good as the original, and that is definitely the case at Chelsea where Antonio Conte is finding out that the second season is always more difficult than the first.

Especially if you win the Premier League in your first season, which is exactly what the Italian did when he arrived from Juventus in 2016, strolling to the title with relative ease.

But now, less than a year later, he is a dead man walking in east London and could even be just one game away from the sack after a run of games that eerily mirrors Jose Mourinho’s final matches in charge at Stamford Bridge.

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The Portuguese – now in charge at Manchester United and, bizarrely, the other protagonist in a very public two-way spat with Conte that has suddenly become a thing in the last 18 months, was sacked as Chelsea boss in December 2015 after a disastrous defence of the Premier League title. Sound familiar, Antonio?

His final five league games in charge from early November that year to mid December went L-W-D-L-L, with two Champions League wins in there strangely. But even staying in Europe’s premier club competition couldn’t save him. Conte’s last four league games have gone L-W-L-D

Defeat at Southampton on Saturday would look very similar to Mourinho’s final days in the Chelsea job (sort of) and could potentially bring an abrupt end to his reign at Stamford Bridge, which will almost certainly end this summer regardless.

Reports that the Blues want to replace him with Napoli boss Maurizio Sarri has intensified in recent days, with the latest rumours out of Italy suggesting they have made contact with the 59-year-old who has turned the south Italian side into serious Serie A title contenders.

Chelsea are currently fifth in the Premier League table, 10 points off Tottenham in fourth, out of the Champions League and increasingly looking like they are having a repeat of Mourinho’s 2015/16 season that saw him sacked halfway through and the team finish 10th.

Indeed, only last summer Conte said that’s exactly what he wanted to avoid. “Two years ago, the team finished 10th place in the league and we want to avoid this,” he said during the club’s preseason tour of the Far East. “I want to avoid, and the players want to avoid, the last season with Mourinho.”

That was one of a string of digs at his predecessor that started in 2016 and has continued into early 2018, including Mourinho criticising Conte’s touchline antics and the Portuguese mocking the Italian’s hair transplant.

But come this summer they could both be out of a job – if Manchester United decide they can’t stand Mourinho’s public outbursts any longer – and will end up looking like they have much more in common than either of them would like to think.

A win against Southampton in Saturday’s early kick-off and another against the Saints in the FA Cup semi-finals next weekend could at least save Conte a tiny bit of face before the inevitable but defeat to former Chelsea striker Mark Hughes could leave him ending up more Mourinho than ever.