• Former Chelsea doctor is also suing club for constructive dismissal • Claim against Mourinho on basis he was instrumental in her demotion

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

It seemed things could not get much worse for José Mourinho with Chelsea 15th in the league having succumbed 3-1 at home to his most hated rivals, Liverpool, under daily assault from the media and with his players off-key.

But the Chelsea manager is now facing an individual legal claim from the former club doctor, Eva Carneiro, in addition to the action she is already pursuing against the club for constructive dismissal.

The personal claim against Mourinho is set to be filed this week by lawyers for the former club doctor, before an 8 November deadline for taking action, after she parted company with Chelsea in the wake of an incident at the beginning of a season that has already turned from drama to crisis for Mourinho and the reigning champions.

On a day when he also received a one-match stadium ban after being sent off at Upton Park last month, the claim against Mourinho means he will have to appear personally before an employment tribunal if the case is not settled.

It is understood that the 52-year-old, who was by turns taciturn and aggressive in media interviews having lost his sixth of 11 Premier League matches on Sunday, will be accused of victimisation and discrimination against the team doctor.

The claim is separate from but linked to Carneiro’s claim against the club. Her lawyers are expected to argue that not only did Mourinho use derogratory language against her but that he was instrumental in effectively demoting her by having her dropped from first-team duties.

Carneiro never returned to the Chelsea bench following a flashpoint during the club’s opening league match against Swansea. Chelsea were temporarily left with nine men on the field after Carneiro and the head physio, Jon Fearn, entered the pitch to treat Eden Hazard.

Mourinho, the once self-styled “special one” who returned to Stamford Bridge 29 months ago declaring himself “the happy one” following spells in Italy and Spain, exploded in fury and called Fearn and Carneiro “impulsive and naive”.

But the medical staff were backed by trade organisations who said they had a professional duty to treat Hazard once motioned on to the pitch by the referee, Michael Oliver.

Carneiro’s supporters have also argued that he treated her differently from Fearn, accusing the Chelsea manager of discrimination.

Chelsea had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

The unseemly row over Mourinho’s treatment of Carneiro, and the club’s backing for his stance, has cast an ongoing pall over a season that has opened with the worst title defence in Premier League history.

After the BBC alleged on Sunday that one player had said “I would rather lose than play for him”, rumours of dressing-room discontent have multiplied.

Sources inside the club claim he still has the backing of his biggest players and on Saturday fans chanted their support for the man who has delivered three league titles for their side​ in two spells at Chelsea.​

But the famously impatient Roman Abramovich, who has employed 10 managers and invested more than £1bn over 12 years as Chelsea owner, is unlikely to wait for ever for an upturn in form.

Defeat against Dynamo Kyiv on Wednesday and Stoke City on Saturday, who have already dumped Chelsea, the holders, out of the Capital One Cup, would make Mourinho’s position potentially untenable.

In stark contrast to previous eras Abramovich actively wants to stick with Mourinho, who signed a new four-year contract in the summer. The millions of pounds in compensation he would have to pay would not concern him but the blow to his pride having ​swallowed it and rehired Mourhino to put the club on a more sustainable course would.

One factor in Mourinho’s favour is the lack of obvious replacements. Aside from Carlo Ancelotti and Guus Hiddink, both previously employed by the club, there is a notable lack of candidates.

Abramovich has long coveted the former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola, now at Bayern Munich, but he has already turned down the Russian once.

Mourinho’s return at the start of the season before last was supposed to herald a new era at Chelsea and spell an end to Abramovich’s revolving door recruitment policy.

Sitting behind the boardroom table in Chelsea’s West Stand, Mourinho insisted he wanted to prove his critics wrong by showing he could build a dynasty as well as deliver the sort of short-term return on silverware that made his reputation.

A number of factors have contributed to Mourinho’s dark, at times seemingly unstable, mood​ amid a remarkably rapid decline​.

The club failed to strengthen in the summer, missing out on the Everton defender John Stones and other targets while selling the long-serving goalkeeper Petr Cech to Arsenal against Mourinho’s wishes.

Players who excelled last season – among them Cesc Fàbegras, John Terry, Eden Hazard and Diego Costa – have misfired so far this, amid febrile rumours of dressing-room unrest.

And none of Mourinho’s much vaunted motivational methods appear to be working.​ ​Meanwhile his father has also been seriously ill back home in Portugal.

Mourinho has racked up £141,000 in fines as he has railed against referees, hinting at an FA conspiracy against him, and was sent to the stands during a 2-0 defeat against West Ham last month.

As he conducted a post mortem with his staff on the Stamford Bridge turf on Saturday in the spot where less than six months earlier Terry lifted the Premier League trophy, Mourinho looked like a man who had run out of ideas.

Meanwhile the fallout from the Carneiro affair will continue to dog him and a club that as recently as last year was proclaiming its commitment to equality in the wake of reports that Carneiro was being abused from the terraces.

“The issue of equality is one we take extremely seriously and we abhor discrimination in all its forms, including sexism,” the club said then. “Such behaviour is unacceptable and we want it eradicated from the game.”

Mourinho was cleared of using discriminatory language towards Carneiro following an investigation by the FA, which caused further controversy after the doctor revealed she had not been spoken to personally, nor asked to provide any statement. The FA countered that it had written to her lawyers asking if she wanted to contribute.

The FA’s chief executive, Martin Glenn, and the head of governance, Darren Bailey, are to be quizzed about the handling of the case by the governing body’s inclusion advisory board later this month.

In a farcical turn of events Heather Rabbatts, chair of the FA’a Inclusion Advisory Board, was herself placed under investigation by the FA following her comments criticising Carneiro’s treatment by football’s governing body.