I mentioned after the defeat to Southampton that I wasn't sure if Mourinho was desperately trying to save his job or get the sack. It's looking more and more likely to me that it's the latter.
He's had failures in the past but they've always been respectable (results wise, not his behaviour of course) - even when he's not won things he's always been there or there abouts. If he were to fail to get this Chelsea squad into the CL it would be his first truly embarrassing season and his reputation would be tarnished. Get the boot now and he doesn't have that black mark on his CV and he'll get a massive pay off too.