We keenly await news of Mourinho's next move, but English football history has never seen a champion club lose its way in quite so dramatic fashion as Chelsea did this season. As 2014 closed, Mourinho was leading a team that was cruising to the Premier League title, but, even though that trophy -- and a League Cup -- was lifted, Chelsea limped home, and then began 2014-15 as if defending the title was a dreadful inconvenience. Nine Premier League defeats followed from 16 matches, and Mourinho was out on Dec. 17.
Jamie Vardy and Leicester City
In December 2014, Vardy was midway through a six-month goal drought, and struggling to get into a team rock-bottom of the table. He is now a record-breaker, having scored in 11 consecutive Premier League matches, emblematic of a team who enter Christmas at the top of the tree. He and Riyad Mahrez have tormented defences throughout the 2015-16 season and aided one of the most unlikely resurrections of all: that of manager Claudio Ranieri. The Italian's gentlemanly demeanour hid just how much he must have enjoyed landing the felling blow on Mourinho (who replaced him at Stamford Bridge back in 2004) when Chelsea lost 2-1 at Leicester on Dec. 14.
Alan Pardew and Crystal Palace
Palace entered Christmas 2014 in the relegation zone, and dispensed with manager Neil Warnock. Pardew, meanwhile, was the second-most hated man in Newcastle (after United owner Mike Ashley) and looking for a way out. He chose the club at which he made his name as a player, and so far it has been a near-perfect fit. "This is South London, it's a great place to be," he said after his team beat Manchester City 2-1 in April, and this season has seen the Eagles soar to eighth and within reach of a Champions League place, playing a thrilling brand of counter-attacking football.
Swansea City
At time of writing, Swansea City are without a manager. So much for the club of succession planning. Garry Monk took them to the brink of qualifying for the Europa League last season, and was being mentioned as an England manager of the future. Then came a disturbing slump in which Swansea failed to win a single Premier League game beyond Aug. 31. Monk was cast aside in early December, his relationships with players and execs having collapsed, and Swansea enter Christmas in serious danger of relegation.
Chris Smalling
Amid the slide of Louis van Gaal's Manchester United regime, few players distinguished themselves. One was David De Gea, whose class was never in doubt, but another was Smalling, who had ended 2014 with his reputation still scarred by a brainless sending-off in a Manchester derby defeat. Since then, he has converted himself into a central defender of class and leadership, and one who looks likely to be the first-choice selection of England manager Roy Hodgson at Euro 2016.
Francis Coquelin
From Charlton loanee to key cog for Arsenal, Coquelin's unlikely rise is now a story well told. It is just a pity for Arsenal that the Frenchman is among the latest victims of the club's injury curse. He will be out until February at the earliest, but before that, had served as proof that Arsene Wenger's resolute faith in his players can still reap reward. From a match-winning anchorman exhibition during Arsenal's 2-0 win at Manchester City in January, Coquelin made himself indispensable to his manager. Six years on the sidelines proved worth the wait.
Brendan Rodgers
As the futures of Pep Guardiola, Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti were being decided this December, one name has slipped from view -- a man once regarded as a face of the future. Since being sacked by Liverpool in October after failing to slow the slide, Rodgers has maintained a radio silence, and reported links with jobs in Qatar and a return to former club Swansea City have come to nothing. In the final days of his Liverpool tenure, Rodgers spoke of his ambition to preside over 1,000 professional games, but his next move remains a mystery.
Dele Alli
Alli's last Christmas was spent playing Oldham Athletic, Notts County and Walsall in League One for MK Dons. Twelve months on, he ends 2015 as the discovery of the English football year, having emerged as an attacking midfielder of strength and purpose. In February, Tottenham took the plunge where other clubs, including Liverpool, dallied, and paid £5 million for a player who, after playing the rest of 2014-15 on loan at MK, swiftly smashed his way into the national consciousness. A fantastic long-range strike against France in November at Wembley for his country all but booked his place in the squad at next year's Euro finals.
Eden Hazard
Hazard was the player who Mourinho felt comfortable saying had a better 2014-15 season than Cristiano Ronaldo and one who was picked as the player of the campaign by his fellow professionals and local football writers alike. Yet if any player represents the slide of Chelsea from champions to chumps, it is the Belgian, who will enter the Christmas period still without having scored a goal for Chelsea this season, and labelled a "rat" by banner-toting Chelsea fans. The touchline brush-off he gave Mourinho at Leicester when leaving the field with an injury was symbolic of a breakdown in relations between player and manager.
Ronald Koeman and Southampton
Like Swansea, Southampton are seen as the blueprint club, an example to follow for those in lower divisions and with aspirations of establishing themselves in the Premier League. Manager Ronald Koeman had the Saints in fourth place on Jan. 1, and became a name linked with some big-time jobs. Recent weeks, though, have seen Southampton slide down the table to 13th and the Dutchman admitting that he fears relegation. The sale of players like Morgan Schneiderlin and Nathaniel Clyne have not helped, but Koeman's reputation is on the line.
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