No, Alex Ferguson remains in place at Manchester United, eagerly awaiting this afternoon's visit of Chelsea. It is today's opponents who, after a remarkably similar start to the champions, threw their most valuable toy out of the pram. In a familiar example of early-season panic (see Gianluca Vialli and most managers of Newcastle), Jose Mourinho parted company with Chelsea because, according to club officials, internal relationships had broken down and performances were being affected, somehow preventing the team from scoring enough goals.

"If this thing's going to work in the long term, then the relationship between the key people in the organisation has to be right, " said chief executive Peter Kenyon. "It hasn't been right for a long time and it got to the point where it wasn't going to be right in the future.

We've reached the point where we have to regroup again and that's what happened."

The timing was unfortunate, coming as it did just before what is by far Chelsea's biggest game of the season to date. In the past two seasons it might even have been described as one half of a title decider between the only two realistic candidates. The exciting possibility is that the Premier League may for the first time become a four-horse chase . . . as long as Chelsea do not find themselves left behind by this self-inflicted handicap.

They are putting an awful lot of faith in Avram Grant, who . . . timing again . . . could not work with his new players yesterday because of Yom Kippur and today takes charge of a club outside Israel for the first time. He insists he had Mourinho's approval when he arrived at the club as director of football in the summer, that he has the respect of the players, and that he had no part in stabbing the Portuguese in the back. "I worked with Jose for two months, I think our relationship was good. I respect what he did. I came to do another job. I didn't plan to be manager."

Having him in situ proved too tempting to resist, however, the American chairman Bruce Buck emphasising "continuity was important".

But predictably, four other Portuguese coaching staff have left with Mourinho and a new director of football will need to be appointed, offering the possibility of further complicated relationships. "It was an important role three months ago and it's still an important role, " Kenyon said.

Then there is the matter of Grant's coaching qualifications, which the Israeli FA are still attempting to have accepted as equivalent to the required Uefa pro licence.

It seems Mourinho is unlikely to work in England in the near future, despite Tottenham's best efforts, and that will leave the country's football all the poorer. He departs with some remarkable statistics on his CV, such as an unbeaten home record in 60 league games and having lost only three matches out of 182 by more than a single goal. It may have been one of those losses, 2-0 at Aston Villa earlier this month that broke the camel's back when cameras caught Roman Abramovich stomping out of the directors' box like a disgusted fan . . . a role the owner frequently seems to confuse with his proper one.

A dull home game with Blackburn, which Chelsea would have won but for a linesman's error, followed and the decision to dispense with Mourinho's services was apparently made before what will go down as a hugely anticlimactic farewell against Rosenborg. Even then it would have been a more satisfactory note on which to bow out if Andriy Shevchenko, Michael Essien and others had taken a normal percentage of their 29 scoring opportunities.

If Ferguson is laughing up his sleeve about his rivals' build-up to this afternoon's game, he might also ask whether there can be all that much wrong with a team that creates so many opportunities while lacking their two highest scorers? Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, who contributed 123 goals to the Mourinho era, were missing from the Blackburn and Rosenborg games and neither is fit to resume today.

That could prove crucial, as encounters with United have all proved tight during the past 12 months. There were the two draws last season before Chelsea snatched the FA Cup at the end of extra time and then lost the Community Shield on penalties.

Their body language and mental approach today will be fascinating. Ferguson may be hoping for dispirited, unsettled opponents but he does not expect it. "Over the last two years Chelsea's consistency has been so good, not a lot of teams have beaten them, us included, although they have had a lot of draws, " he said. "That's an indication of how difficult they are to beat.

They eke something from a game. Last season we outplayed them first half but they got a corner kick and a little break and scored. They are capable of doing that because they have a good determination about them not to give in in matches and this won't be any different. It will be a hard, hard match. It's easy for the Chelsea players in one respect because they are playing United and you wouldn't think they would want any motivation for that. It might have been more difficult if they were playing a lesser team."

Grant, he revealed, used to visit United's training ground when he was coach to the Israeli national team. "Jose and Chelsea were one of the greatest challenges I've faced as a manager. After years of having Arsenal as our main challengers, in one season Jose came in and turned the table upside down in that respect.

"Ever since he arrived at Chelsea they were always up at the top and he made them the team to beat. The two years they won the Premier League back to back they did it in the first few weeks of the season with their consistency.

I really enjoyed the competition with him. It was something new for me. It became harder for us, there is no doubt at all about that . . . Jose made it harder for us all."

Ferguson will be hoping that begins to start waning today.