Malouda backs Blues to bounce back

FLORENT MALOUDA admits his Chelsea team-mates are shell-shocked by a run of form that has produced only two wins in their last nine games, and a loss of confidence is preventing the side from getting back to winning ways.

But the French winger has warned that despite their slump, they remain within touching distance of the top of the Premier League and that if they win their next two matches, against fellow title contenders Arsenal and Manchester United, the double-winners will be back on top of the pile.

“We’re not going to hide, this is a tough time for the club,” said Malouda.

“I’ve rarely known a period of such bad results since I came here. There are a lot of reasons: maybe we’ve lost our confidence a bit, and you’re a bit shell-shocked when you’re not used to these results.

“I’ve been at clubs before when we’ve been used to losing and so there wasn’t this sense of emergency, whereas here we’re used to winning. We are losing games and don’t always understand why.”

Malouda was speaking to French TV station Canal Plus, and he revealed that the players had been baffled that some decent performances had not been rewarded with results: for example, Chelsea were excellent against Birmingham but lost 1-0, whereas they did not play as well in their matches against Stoke and West Ham earlier in the season but won both (2-0 and 3-1).

Chelsea missed the chance to go top of the table on Sunday night after Didier Drogba had his last-minute penalty-kick saved by Spurs goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes.

The result left Chelsea in fourth place, but given that their next two games are against the top two sides, home to United and then away at Arsenal, they are still right in contention.

“What’s amazing is that, despite the negative series of results we’ve had, we haven’t been left behind,” a relieved Malouda added.

“That’s the ‘positive’ side of things. If we go on a run, with the games we have coming up, we can still overtake everyone. It’s in this kind of adversity that we can really measure our ambition.”

The Frenchman, whose own goalscoring form has deserted him ­ he scored six in Chelsea’s first five games, but has only got two in his last 14 ­ also threw his support behind coach Carlo Ancelotti, whose position has come under threat as this is Chelsea’s worst run of results since 1999 when Gianluca Vialli was coach.

“We are all behind the manager and we’re working hard to change things,” he said. “When Ancelotti arrived, he played me in a different position. Lampard played behind the strikers, and me in the middle. For some big games, as I wasn’t a household name, I was part of the rotation. In January, after six months, Ancelotti changed the system, he wanted us to play higher up the pitch. And I started scoring goals. Some said that I was playing more because I had complained to the coach. That’s a funny one. That would not be easy. With Ancelotti, you can shout at him, but that wouldn’t change a thing...

“I have always seen the coach as a man, and I am also a man, I have a family, I have kids. It’s not because he is my coach that I can’t have an honest and frank relationship with him. I don’t think that in modern football that you have to go through your agent to tell something to the manager. I like direct relations. If I am not happy, I say it. If the coach is not happy, he tells me, and we discuss it. It remains between us and this is the best way.”