Lose to Manchester City and It Will Be Crisis Time for Chelsea's Jose Mourinho

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho hasn't been far from the headlines this week.

Indeed, with a disappointing pre-season and draw in Chelsea's opening Premier League fixture of 2015/16, the subsequent hyperbole surrounding Mourinho's falling-out with his medical staff has heightened the stakes at Stamford Bridge.

It hasn't been named as such, but added to the fact Chelsea seem to have fallen behind their rivals on the back of a quiet summer transfer window, the champions are in the throes of a mini-crisis.

Lose to Manchester City on Sunday and it will be full-blown.

Mourinho changed the rules of a Premier League title pursuit a decade ago. Whereas teams were once able to ease their way into a campaign and make up for it later on, things are much different now.

After Chelsea's rapid start in 2004, it's become essential that those with title aspirations start the season just as well as they finish it.

We're barely a week into the new campaign, so we can hardly claim anything has been won or lost just yet. That may be so, however, if City take three points off Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium this weekend—it will have created a five-point gap already.

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So early into 2015/16, it may well be a psychological blow from which the champions don't recover.

We saw it last year.

Chelsea were so dominant in the first half of the campaign, it rendered anything post-Christmas as redundant. Watching Chelsea cruise their way to the title was exciting for their fans; for the rest of us, it made 2014/15 largely forgettable.

Nobody could catch them, and the pursuit of Mourinho's men made mincemeat out of the competition. Watching them rack up win after win threw down the gauntlet to City and Arsenal, who knew they had to match Chelsea's ferocious pace or they would be cut adrift.

Now Chelsea run the risk of having the tables reversed with just two games played.

Here's why.

With a weakened bench, Mourinho has lost the ability to react to situations in matches. He has all the tools he needs when he picks his starting XI, although beyond that, Chelsea are weak.

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Against Swansea City on Saturday, with a man down, Mourinho's only viable options were to bring on two defensive players and Radamel Falcao.

The introduction of Asmir Begovic was unavoidable after Thibaut Courtois saw red, but with Kurt Zouma later replacing Cesc Fabregas, it was clear the manager was struggling to make a difference with his resources.

Being at a numerical disadvantage, if Chelsea were to defeat Swansea, the emphasis was always on them taking control of the game through possession. They needed to be wiser on the ball and recycle it better to create space and pick off their opponents.

For all his qualities, ball retention isn't Zouma's strongest. As a central defender, he's hardly the most potent attacking threat, either.

Mourinho said after the game in his press conference that he still wanted to win the game and went for it to the very end. Taking that at face value, the move to replace Zouma for Fabregas evidently had some tactical grounding with that in mind.

It seems odd, though: a defender for last term's No. 1 Premier League assists-maker? Something was amiss.

Of course it was—it was the Chelsea bench. Mourinho didn't have many options elsewhere, and of those that he did, the trust in them to produce wasn't there.

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Which is why defeat against City so early in the campaign raises such concerns.

If Chelsea fall five points behind Manuel Pellegrini's men, do they have enough to make up that difference over the course of the season?

Right now, it doesn't appear so. If Chelsea can't sufficiently react to in-game scenarios, they can't react to things around them in the table either.

And when you're champions and attempting to defend your title, that spells crisis. Whatever the stage of the season we're in.

Chelsea shouldn't be in this position. Being the Premier League's top team from the opening day in 2014/15, right through to when the last ball was kicked, their title defence is already looking feeble.

Come May, that assessment may well need a revision. If that's to prove the case, Mourinho and his players dare not lose at the Etihad.

Taking all three points against Swansea would have given a different complexion to their trip north. Not losing would have still been high on the agenda, if not top of it, but with results going against them elsewhere, losing ground so early simply isn't an option.

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This time last year, the momentum was Chelsea's. In their first 10 Premier League matches, they dropped just four points when they drew against City and Manchester United.

City dropped 13 points; Arsenal did the same.

That's all gone now. Come the final whistle on Sunday, there's a very real possibility Chelsea may have surpassed their tally in just the first two outings of 2015/16.

It's par for the course at some clubs, but not for Chelsea; not for the reigning champions who, by default, are expected to at least put up a challenge.

We expected this game to be big when the fixture list was published. Did anyone think it would be of such gargantuan importance?

Chelsea have made it so, and they need to produce something if they're to avoid Premier League oblivion.

Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes