Bill Edgar's tactical analysis

For all the titles and trophies, José Mourinho’s greatest achievement at Chelsea may have been getting out in the nick of time. With the club lurching from one storm to another, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the Portuguese, a product of a nation of navigators, saw the iceberg.

Few people in the public eye, whether sports stars, musicians or politicians, depart with the crowd gasping for more, but to judge from the brisk trade in commemorative T-shirts outside Stamford Bridge on Saturday, Mourinho has pulled it off. Being followed by a self-confessed “normal” manager in Avram Grant, whose team have yet to score in the Premier League, is likely to enhance his legend further.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that Mourinho engineered his dismissal, as The Times has learnt more about the crucial meeting with Roman Abramovich, the club’s owner, on September 19 that sealed his fate. Mourinho is understood to have told the Russian that he was ready to leave, citing poor results, the difficulty of taking an injury-plagued squad to Manchester United the next weekend and the prospect of next year’s African Cup of Nations disrupting his plans. While shocked at such defeatism, Abramovich was happy to see the back of a manager he had barely spoken to since January.

After spending much of his three seasons at Chelsea squabbling with the owner, Mourinho’s departure represented a final victory, securing a £12 million payoff and a heroic legacy, while leaving others to pick up the pieces from a poor start to the season.

Grant attempted to pin some of the blame on his predecessor after seeing Chelsea fail to score for the fourth successive league match, but irrespective of the accuracy of such a claim, it will be seen as an excuse. Chelsea’s run of four matches without a win is their worst since Gianluca Vialli replaced Ruud Gullit nine years ago and is Grant’s problem, despite his protestations to the contrary.

“It was a problem that was here before,” he said. “I would be worried if the problems started last week, but if you remember before against Rosenborg, Blackburn and Aston Villa, we didn’t even create many chances. I’m happy that we’re at least creating more chances than in these games.

“It’s not an easy time, but in the life of a team there are some times that are not easy. The last month has not been easy for us, especially after we lost so many players today, but we want to look to the future. We need to fix it.”

Whether Grant - who resembles a humble apothecary to Mourinho the alchemist – has the cure remains to be seen. Senior players are questioning his training methods, but what is most striking about Chelsea’s fall from grace is how poorly many of those players are performing.

In the absence of Frank Lampard, Ricardo Carvalho and with Didier Drogba patently half-fit before his sending-off, the team assembled by the Special One looked ordinary. Steve Sidwell lacks the class to inspire his teammates from midfield, Salomon Kalou needs a dozen chances to score a goal and Andriy Shevchenko would struggle to find the net if he was representing Chelsea on Sky One’s Premier League All Stars. Mourinho was well aware of such limitations, so he appears to have jumped before being pushed.

With better finishing from Paul Konchesky and Diomansy Kamara, Fulham could have nicked a win. “I was quoted saying we would win 1-0 and was about six inches away from being right at the end, twice,” Lawrie Sanchez, the manager, said. “It was a good time to play them and the only disappointment for me was that we didn’t take all three points.”

Grant supported his players by saying that there is no need to strengthen the squad in January, although he could be long gone by then. In contrast to Mourinho, the timing of his departure is unlikely to be his decision.

How they rated

Chelsea

4-4-2 P Cech 5 J Belletti 5 J Terry 5 T Ben Haim 4 A Cole 5 J Cole 6 S Sidwell 5 C Makelele 5 S Kalou 4 D Drogba Y R 5 A Shevchenko 4 Substitutes Alex 4 (for Terry, 46min), C Pizarro 4 (for Shevchenko, 54), F Malouda (for A Cole, 77) Not used C Cudicini, P Ferreira

Fulham

4-4-2 K Keller 7 C Baird 6 A Hughes 6 C Bocanegra 7 P Konchesky 6 S Davies 6 A Smertin 6 S Davis Y 5 Seol Ki Hyeon 5 D Healy 6 C Dempsey 6 Substitutes D Kamara 6 (for Healy, 67min), H Bouazza (for Seol, 73), D Murphy (for Smertin, 82) Not used A Niemi, S Kuqi

Referee M Atkinson

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