Roman still backs me, insists under-fire Blues boss

LONDON: Andre Villas- Boas insists he still has the full backing of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich despite his side’s recent slump.

The pressure on Villas-boas’ position increased when his side were unable to overcome Championship club Birmingham City in the FA Cup fifth round tie at Stamford Bridge.

The 1-1 draw came after last weekend’s Premier League defeat at Everton, a result that prompted him to call his players in for a clear-the-air meeting and extra training on their day off.

Abramovich also attended that meeting but if the club owner and manager hoped for an immediate reaction, they were disappointed.

David Murphy gave Birmingham a 20th minute lead and it took a second-half header from Daniel Sturridge to earn a replay for Chelsea after Juan Mata had missed a first-half penalty.

Villas-boas was in no doubt Chelsea’s display against Birmingham wasn’t up to the standards expected at the club.

“It was not good enough, for sure it wasn’t.

“We were better in the second half but didn’t have enough opportunities to win.

“It took us too long to find our level and they had opportunities to go on and score the second.”

Admitting his squad’s selfbelief had taken a battering recently, he added: “The situation is we don’t have enough good results for us to feel a bit strong.

“But we are still in these competitions and will continue to push for them. It will be a difficult game against Napoli but we have shown in the group game we can overcome adversity.”

Chelsea’s Champions League cause against Napoli in Italy tomorrow will not be helped if Ashley Cole and John Terry fail to recover from the injuries that kept them sidelined against Birmingham.

“Both Terry and Cole are in with a chance of making it. Hopefully, we will have Ashley training tomorrow. Terry is very, very doubtful but we will take him anyway,” he said.

“He wants to play but is struggling with his knee injury. It’s a 50-50 chance. He trained with us 100% two days ago, the following day he couldn’t train. So we will take him to Napoli and make a decision.”

Birmingham manager Chris Hughton hailed his side’s performance as the best in a season that included a Europa League campaign.

“I’m absolutely delighted, not just with the result but the performance. Over the 90 minutes we were able to offer a threat as well as contain them,” Hughton said.

“It was our best performance of the season.”