Liam Rosenior is being mocked by his own players - he will soon be another Chelsea victim

Chelsea have lost five Premier League games in succession, failing to score in any of them, and Liam Rosenior's position is in major jeopardy after he questioned the effort of his players at Brighton

There have been some pretty low blows aimed at Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior in recent days and weeks. From a few former team-mates and people who should know better.

Sean Davis - who played with him at Fulham - said Rosenior "talks like he has swallowed a dictionary of long words". His comments came after Kevin Kilbane claimed that everything Rosenior says is "waffle, drivel, nothing."

Is that informed criticism? Or just mockery? Simply, it's not been very pleasant.

Rosenior is a relatively young coach trying to make his way in a very tough job. After doing good work at both Hull City and Strasbourg. But with these players, a job that appeared tough has become impossible.

And now it's not just his former team-mates who are mocking him. His current players are doing likewise.

With their effort (lack of), their commitment (lack of), their performances (lack of). In every Premier League match this season these Chelsea players have been outrun - in terms of distance covered - no matter who they've played. That tells you all you need to know.

Eleven of the 20 outfield players who started the Brighton-Chelsea game completed a full game. In the list of who ran the least, Chelsea occupied the bottom three positions. Pascal Gross covered 13.16km for Brighton. No Chelsea player got close to the 34-year-old.

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Sure, Rosenior has made many mistakes since taking charge at Stamford Bridge. Suspending Enzo Fernandez for what seemed a relatively trivial offence - musing about the idea of living in the great city of Madrid - was most definitely one of them.

His tactics at Brighton were clearly flawed and turning to Alejandro Garnacho at half-time to turn things around tells you a lot about the myriad problems in west London.

Everyone in football knew about the attitude issues Garnacho had at Manchester United. It was the talk of the game. Still, someone at Chelsea thought they knew best and that spending £40million on him was a good idea. A dreadful decision - but one in keeping with how this version of Chelsea Football Club is run.

What Rosenior needed at half-time was to look in his dressing room and find a leader to take that side out and lead. To set the tone. To force those around him to be better. Whatever your opinion of the others on the bench, Garnacho is no leader.

That Garnacho is at the club is a reflection of how badly it is being run and the underlying blame for the chaos rests with the ownership and their executives.

But the bottom line about the display at Brighton is that it had the ominous, unmistakable look of one a group of players give when they have no fear of the manager. Don't fancy it? It's OK, just take the night off, no need to worry about what's coming. As Chris Sutton suggested on television, they can chuck it.

Sutton described them as ‘gutless’. And, to be fair, Rosenior himself was not much less critical of his own players.

“The attitude was unacceptable,” he said. “I keep coming out and defending the players but that performance was indefensible.

“The general attitude, spirit and determination was lacking, apart from maybe three or four of the 11. That is nowhere near enough for this club.”

And it is nowhere near enough to keep Rosenior in is job.

Fundamentally, at its core, it is not his fault. Nothing to do with his public soundbites.

However, he will soon be another victim of a place where most managers come to be embarrassed by the players.

It is not a question of if but when he goes. And it will be sooner rather than later.