Maresca has just slit his own throat.

Of course there are a few different reasons a coach can lose his job. An obvious one is to not be very good - or perhaps he/she can be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Both apply to Reuben Amorim.

A coach can be stubbornly wrong. Russell Martin comes to mind in this category. If he hadn’t been so naive - no daft - early in the season, Southampton wouldn’t be going down labelled as the worst PL team of all time. Russell arrogantly over-played and refused to change. Saints weren’t good enough to stroke the ball and play ‘the right way’.

A coach can sometimes overstay his/her welcome. Players can get tired of hearing the same voice. It’s usually the coach that goes in these circumstances nowadays - Fergie had the luxury of being able to change the players of course.

A coach will go if the chairman/owner starts getting stick from supporters. He/she doesn’t have to get on with decision makers but it helps to manage upwards as well as down.

There are many internal reasons that can lead to a change and we don’t always get to know about those, but the last two categories I’m going to mention are a no no.

Losing the dressing room will end badly. Ask the last half dozen coaches at Leicester and Chelsea. Players have so much power these days if they don’t fancy a coach they’ll be gone.

Steve Cooper found that out. He clearly wanted to take Jamie Vardy on, but didn’t get the time. Vardy took him out early.

And the last category is crossing a line from which few - if any - ever come back. That is - pissing supporters off.

Ange is a dead man walking. He picked a fight with Tottenham fans during the recent Chelsea game. Bad call Ange. You just can’t do that.

He’s gone - even if he wins the Europa League. I backed him half way through the season but I’ve changed my mind. I’m tired of listening to him mumble at the floor explaining ‘it’s what we are mate’. He knows he’s toast. Perhaps it’s why he doubled down at Wolves?

Knowing it’s a fast track out of a club is perhaps why Maresca has gone and committed the very same offence and slit his own throat?

It’s the only reason I can think of that explains why he went after Chelsea fans at the weekend, suggesting the ‘environment’ they created at The Bridge helped Ipswich take a two goal lead.

Madness. Absolute madness. If he doesn’t want out he’s got some making up to do now. Winning the Conference League might not be enough to get Chelsea fans back onside, although adding a success like that to his cv would suit him.

I’ve got mates who are Chelsea fans and they’re convinced Maresca wants that more than a top 5 finish - because he won’t be around next season.

I’m more of the view that Chelsea are still flaky. The current group are Spursy. I know someone who was at the training ground Friday and he said he could sniff Sunday’s performance. Everything was wrong. And that’s how it played out.

There’s no doubt Chelsea have a talented group. The problem is it doesn’t seem to matter enough to them. And Maresca doesn’t appear to know how to ‘whip’ them.

Performances like Sunday’s are all too regular. You can almost hear them saying to each other ‘it’s only Ipswich. We’ll beat them. Where are we going Sunday night?’

When Terry Mac would organise nights out - while he was on the pitch at Liverpool - it was because they were the best team in England. It didn’t matter.

Chelsea aren’t. In fact they might not even be the best team in West London. Chelsea fans have every right to express their frustration and Maresca was daft to take them on - unless he wants out but doesn’t want to make that decision himself. Getting sacked is far more lucrative than deciding to walk.

I wouldn’t say the automated off-side system was an unqualified success. They were slow at Chelsea and Wolves - and not once did I see the view an assistant gets. We need to see across the line to be sure decisions are correct - not be looking at incidents from angles. But as least it wasn’t a flop. Small mercies I guess?

West Ham were unlucky. There was a nailed-on foul before the corner that led to Liverpool’s winner. We’re told VAR corrects the ‘clear and obvious’. Well clearly and obviously not.

I read that Jim Ratcliffe is about to raid the Mercedes F1 team and steal their ‘senior performance simulation engineer’. Of course he is. They’ve already got a cycling expert at United It makes perfect sense.

Good luck to Arsenal and Villa this week. I really fancy Arsenal. It won’t be easy, but I think they did enough in the first leg. What I would definitely be doing if I was Arteta is publicly questioning both the ref and VAR. I’m not saying either is likely to be influenced by the occasion - but I’d be raising awareness about possible problems in advance of the game.

I’m not so confident about Villa. Paris have found a groove. They look a really good side, but if Villa get one early you never know. Remember - Villa weren’t supposed to win it in ‘82.