Manchester United legend Gary Neville believes it would be "madness" for Chelsea to sack Maurizio Sarri, but says he would not be surprised to see the Italian lose his job.
Sarri’s future is in doubt after his side were hammered 6-0 by Manchester City on Sunday, their third away league defeat on the spin.
The Italian’s tactics and lack of versatility have brought huge criticism, and the Blues have now fallen to sixth in the Premier League.
However, Neville insists sacking Sarri, who only took the job last summer, is not the answer.
"It's not something we want, six months into the job it would be madness in some ways, but there's where we are at with football,” Neville said after the game on Sky Sports.
"If the ownership at the club really want to see a better level of football they need to live through the pain. Now is not the time to go weak on that.”
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has repeatedly shown his willingness to part ways with managers, and Sarri himself admitted that talks with the club hierarchy about his future were now an inevitability.
And Neville, who played his entire club career under one manager, admits it would not shock him if Abramovich were to wield the axe again.
“It's the type of club where you wouldn't be surprised if you wake up tomorrow to the news that Chelsea have changed their manager,” he said.
"If you said at the start of the season that Chelsea would be challenging for the top four, would be in the FA Cup, still in Europe and in the Carabao Cup final, you wouldn't think for one second that the manager would be losing his job.
"But it's the noises that have been coming out from Chelsea in the last six or seven weeks and the interviews that Sarri has done. You can multiply that by 10 because we only hear a small part of it, so you can imagine on the inside it isn't great.
"That would be a big concern, and Chelsea don't hang around."
