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Roman Abramovich may be compelled to act sooner rather than later if it appears Chelsea are heading for the Europa League

The old immutable law of the ex ensured that Glen Johnson would be the man to pop up with the late winner that helped his current club beat his old employers on Sunday. It is a law that was never likely to apply to Fernando Torres, who was granted only a fleeting appearance in the final stages but still managed to convey the impression of a man out of touch with whatever qualities persuaded Roman Abramovich to spend £50m to take him to Stamford Bridge last January.

In a dozen attempts, Chelsea have still not managed to beat a Liverpool team managed by Kenny Dalglish. A 1-0 defeat in the equivalent fixture last season, when Torres made a spectacularly hapless debut a few days after his arrival at Stamford Bridge, did no good to Carlo Ancelotti’s hopes of remaining at the club that he had led to a league and FA Cup Double the previous season. Now there is the question of how long André Villas-Boas, his expensively acquired successor, can cling on to the position.

Three of Chelsea’s last four league matches in the past month have ended in varying forms of ignominy. The representatives of a club into which the owner has poured around £750m would not have expected to lose by the only goal to the newly promoted Queens Park Rangers at humble Loftus Road. The subsequent 5-3 home defeat at Arsenal’s hands would have been simply unthinkable during the reign of José Mourinho, whose achievements his fellow Portuguese was employed to emulate.

Mourinho drew criticism towards the end of his time in London for sending out teams that played with a pragmatism inappropriate to the amount of money lavished on assembling their components, not to mention out of sync with the owner’s desire to see attractive football, but in his time there were plenty of 4-0 wins and absolutely no outright humiliations of the sort inflicted by Arsène Wenger’s players.

That was followed by a 1-0 victory at Ewood Park, at a time when beating Blackburn Rovers is no indication of a team’s quality. And then, following the international break, came this calamitous last-minute collapse, the result of the sort of indiscipline that would have had Mourinho frothing at the mouth. Abramovich paid Porto £13m in compensation for allowing Villas-Boas to leave before the end of his contract. Had he stayed, no doubt he would have maintained the extraordinary success of his first season, when his players won four trophies, including the Europa League, and went through the Portuguese league season unbeaten. But winning the Europa Cup at the age of 33 is not the same as winning the European Cup at 41, as Mourinho did.

“The owner did not pay €15m to get me out of Porto to pay another fortune to get me out of here,” Villas-Boas said on Sunday night, with more bravado than realism. If Abramovich is not distracted from football matters by his attempt to convince the high court that it would be wrong to order him to pass over a substantial part of his bank balance to his former partner Boris Berezovsky, he will think nothing of paying whatever amount of compensation is stipulated in his young manager’s contract. This is a man who shocked the art world by spending £63m at auction on works by Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud three years ago, smashing records of all kinds in order to please his girlfriend.

Over Villas-Boas’s shoulder lurks the shadow of Guus Hiddink, newly unemployed as a result of Turkey’s inability to make it through last week’s Euro

• Merseysiders exit competition after goalless draw with Braga
• ‘We have to finish high in the league’ says goalkeeper

José Reina has called on Liverpool to “react” to their exit from the Europa League by fighting for a European place via the Premier League.

A goalless draw against Braga at Anfield on Thursday saw Liverpool lose 1-0 on aggregate to the Portuguese side and fail to make the quarter-finals of a competition they had serious intentions of winning.

Doing so would also have represented the Merseysiders’ best chance of playing in Europe next season. To do so via the league they would have to finish fifth this season, a difficult task given they are currently six points behind Tottenham, who are currently in that position, having played a game more than the Londoners.

Reina, however, refuses to give up. “We are disappointed and we know it’s a trophy we can no longer fight for,” said the Spain goalkeeper, who made his 300th appearance for Liverpool in the draw with Braga “Now we have to make sure we finish as high as possible in the league. Fifth is still do-able. There are nine games to play and a lot of points. Tottenham are involved in the Champions League still and have plenty of games.

“Hopefully we’ll win enough games to get fifth, but of course everyone knows it’s difficult. We have to bounce back now. It’s not about how you get knocked out, it’s about how you react. We’re Liverpool and we have to react.”

Liverpoolguardian.co.uk

• Sir Alex Ferguson ignored media after Liverpool defeat
• Portuguese winger rejected defender’s attempted apology

Nani feels let down by Manchester United over their failure to complain publicly about the tackle by Liverpool’s Jamie Carragher that forced him off the field at Anfield with a badly gashed leg.

Nani was withdrawn at half-time of Sunday’s defeat and, although United were privately furious at Carragher’s challenge, which they felt merited a red rather than a yellow card, they have not commented on the incident because of a media black-out imposed by Sir Alex Ferguson.

United’s manager refused to speak to any media outlets after the game, including the club’s own television station, and instructed his coaching staff and players to remain silent.

Sources close to Nani said the winger believes the club should have shown support for him publicly. United’s chief executive, David Gill, was sufficiently incensed by Carragher’s tackle to voice his complaints to the referees’ chief, Mike Riley, at half-time in the directors’ box.

Carragher tried to apologise to Nani after the game but it is understood the Portuguese was unwilling to engage with the defender, who was denied access by United’s players to their dressing room. He then waited outside with the intention of saying sorry but Nani is understood to have walked by.

Nani does not expect his injury to sideline him for long. “I would like to thank supporters for their good wishes and I hope to be back really soon,” he said.

Manchester UnitedLiverpoolJamie CarragherDaniel Taylorguardian.co.uk