Chelsea: Enzo Maresca must beat Southampton and Leicester or he will be sacked, says Paul Merson

Sky Sports' Paul Merson says Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca needs his team to beat both Southampton and Leicester to save his job after a recent underwhelming run.

Chelsea gave up a lead at Villa Park when they were beaten 2-1 by Aston Villa on Saturday, a defeat that means the Blues have now only won two of their last 10 games in the Premier League.

Their slump has seen them drop out of the top four and also exit the FA Cup following defeat to Brighton.

Chelsea's FA Cup reverse at the Amex was followed by a 3-0 Premier League thumping at the hands of the same opponents and it is a poor run of form that Merson says has heaped pressure on Maresca, who took over from Mauricio Pochettino last summer.....

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Chelsea have got to get Champions League football

If they don't win their next two games, the manager won't be there. They're playing against two of the worst teams to play in the Premier League for I don't know how long in Southampton and Leicester. So, if they don't win those two games, he will do well to keep his job.

Chelsea have got to get in the Champions League. They need the Champions League to keep players like Cole Palmer as he will want to play in that competition.

They will have to finish in the top five, otherwise I dread to think what's going to happen. I just don't see what the plan is. All the seven-year contracts and these players are not getting any better. How many of them have been a major success?

Bar Palmer, I don't see any major successes at Chelsea. Even Palmer has struggled now, Palmer needs Nicolas Jackson, and Jackson needs Palmer.

Without Jackson's movement, Palmer gets suffocated out of the game. He hasn't got any movement in front of him. People give Jackson stick, but you can see how good he is now he's not in the team.

Now, all of a sudden, they've got nothing up front, so no one's making the runs and Palmer's got no space. So he's getting deeper and deeper. Jackson's a massive miss.

Amorim is not helping his players

Ruben Amorim is the problem at Manchester United. The three at the back isn't working the way he'd planned. So, change it.

He's not helping the players, he's helping himself by just keeping it the way he's been used to playing all his managerial career or most of it.

Top managers are flexible. They go, you know what, I don't really want to play this way, but I've got to play to the players' strengths, and then when I can get my players in at the end of the season, I'll go back to playing the way I want to play. But, at the moment, they need to start playing a different way because they won't beat Real Sociedad, playing like this.

I don't think they will move Amorim on either. They don't have the money to start all over again. They'll have to go with this man. But my worry is, we all know that they can't play three at the back, we know they're all over the place. They haven't got the feet and the legs in midfield. So change it. He keeps on sending these players out to fail and, at the moment, that's what's happening every other week.

David Moyes, I got his reappointment at Everton wrong, I didn't think he'd do that well. I think he's been amazing. But he's come in and played to the players' strengths, good managers play to the players' strengths, not to the manager's strengths.

This Man Utd team won't win the Premier League. They need five or six players, so why not just play to their strengths, get through this season, and then go and get the players you need?

Rashford move coming back to bite Amorim

Marcus Rashford's a good player, we've seen it over the years. He has one good season, one bad one, but it was just about sorting his head out.

You've got a player who probably needed a change of scenery. He was either going to go one of two ways. He carries on the way he was at United or he goes in and goes, you know what, I'm going to show you.

Amorim bad-mouthed him. He had had a 63-year-old goalkeeping coach in front of him. He's coming back to bite the manager.

He's better than what Man Utd have got when he's playing like he is. Unai Emery and the scenery have helped him immensely. And it looks like he's enjoying his football again.

There's a way that Villa play. We still don't know how Man Utd play, they're all over the place. With Villa, there is a set way of playing. He knows how he's got to play. They get the ball to him quickly and they play with a lot of pace.

Villa get people in the box. You've got a goalscorer in Watkins who gets in the box and Asensio, what a signing that is to get him from PSG. So it helps him. At the moment, he's probably playing with better players around him who have more confidence than the players that he's got at Man Utd.

If Arsenal did not have the injuries they would still be in the race

They are not far off Liverpool long term. Arsenal have got massive injuries. You take them three players out. I mean, I look at it on Saturday.

You'd probably take the front three of West Ham on Saturday over Arsenal's front three. This week, this Wednesday, you 100 per cent take the front three at Forest. They'd all get into the Arsenal team this week, this midweek. All of them and this is where it is. They have bad injuries.

They're not a million miles behind Liverpool. There's hardly anything in it. When you've got those kinds of injuries, it's just difficult. If they had Saka, Havertz and Martinelli as their front three, the gap would be a lot shorter than what it is now. There's no getting away from that. I was flabbergasted Merino started up front again, you've got to play Sterling. I know Sterling hasn't pulled up any trees.

Liverpool wilI win the league but the gap will close. I'm not sure if Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold renew. I don't see it. If they don't sign, then that's it. It becomes a right leveller.

So, I don't think Arsenal have to do much. I think Liverpool have to try and do what they've got to do. I wouldn't be worried about Arsenal. Arsenal have missed out because they've been injured.

Salah is Premier League's best-ever player

Mohamed Salah is just extraordinary at what he does. He's not always involved in the game but he is on a different planet at the moment. He is absolutely phenomenal.

I think that's been the difference most of the time. When he's turned up, and he's turned up nearly every game, he doesn't have to be playing unbelievably well to do something unbelievably well.

Some people are better footballers than players. There'd be some who's a better player, but they're not a better footballer. Dennis Bergkamp is an unbelievable footballer. He didn't put up the figures that Salah's put up.

Salah's a much, much better player than him. But I wouldn't say he's a much, much better footballer than him.

Salah is the best player the Premier League has ever seen as he changes games on a consistent basis. No one has done that like him.

But Thierry Henry is the only player I've ever seen playing in the Premier League who looks like a 20-year-old playing in an U12s league. I don't get that with Salah but if Liverpool win the Champions League he will win the Ballon d'Or.

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