The most damning comment for me was from Jamie Carragher who quite accurately assessed that Sarri had turned us into Arsenal. That really hurt. How we laughed at poor old out-of-date Arsene — immovable on his pretty but ineffective football and hoping above anything else to finish fourth.

I am not going to lay all of the blame at the Italian’s feet — Chelsea have had issues for a few years now and the board and owner need to look at the part they have played in our woes.

But, and it’s a big but, the managers we have had in that time have been able to deliver a modicum of success from a team which still has more than its fair share of decent players (despite also having obvious shortfalls).

It’s the stubbornness that rankles most. The players, the fans, the pundits — everyone, can see that Sarri’s brand of football is not working.

He claims it is working and that the issue is consistency. Does he think we are stupid? He was a new manager, with a new philosophy — teams were quite rightly initially hesitant — but he was found out pretty quickly and since then it’s been open season.

The Manchester City game was hard to take, but for me, the 4-0 against Bournemouth was more humiliating. That demonstrated to the whole of the Premier League that you didn’t need superstars and a high-profile manager to beat Chelsea — a standard team with a standard manager could inflict almost the same damage — because we are predictable, lightweight, tactically naïve and without any backup plans.

Chelsea fans overall are a loyal and patient bunch — more so than those that run the club. But Sarri’s pig-headedness has made even the most laid- turn against him. If he could at least acknowledge that perhaps his philosophy, in its current form has not translated too well into this league and he needs to re-think it, then there would be hope. But sadly there is no hope of such a swing.

On top of the poor results, the football itself is dull beyond description. Endless passing leading nowhere — except to our own self-destruction. Most fans of most clubs will have seen their team go through a poor period, but there is always hope — that’s the thing that has most of us football addicts coming back for more. Chelsea fans of my generation have seen some real garbage served up in the past — but I have never felt so disconnected from my club or the game as I do now. It’s a malaise that seems to be pretty prevalent amongst the Chelsea faithful now. Of course, the constant rumours of the club being up for sale and the ongoing absence of Abramovich since his visa issue has hardly helped but it is obvious that some major changes are required to right the ship.

But I’m not sure I ultimately trust those making the big decisions at the moment. So where do we go to from here?

Tonight, we face a United side who a few weeks ago were arguably in a similar pit of despair. Out goes the Special One and in comes, the Baby Faced One and they start steaming up the league. PSG stopped them in their tracks which is fortunate for us as the confidence factor alone is sometimes very difficult to overcome. We traditionally have had a very good record against United at the Bridge and also often manage to pull a surprising result off when we are wounded and at a low ebb. So who knows what we will see this evening?

A win may buy Sarri a few more weeks but ultimately, I think he is a dead man walking and, unusually, this sacking will be with the blessing of most fans. But then who comes in next? Many supporters would love a big name like Zidane and Simeone — but why on earth would either of them want to come to Chelsea? Especially when both are being pursued by clubs who will give them time, money and a free hand?