AVB confident of Abramovich support

ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS is confident Roman Abramovich remains fully behind his Chelsea project as he seeks to prevent the club’s slump becoming a full-blown crisis.

Villas-Boas has spoken with billionaire owner Abramovich amid what has been arguably the most turbulent 10 days of his short managerial career.

The fallout from the John Terry racism allegations and a raft of disciplinary issues have been compounded by results having nosedived in the past fortnight.

One win in the last four games — and that required extra-time — has left Chelsea nine points behind Manchester City in the Premier League title race and far from certain to qualify for the Champions League knockout stages.

Villas-Boas was recruited to marry the club’s recent success with the attacking brand of football Abramovich craves.

The 34-year-old has certainly delivered on the second front but must find a way of cutting out the defensive errors his side have been making in order to succeed on the first.

While Abramovich will be as unhappy as any Chelsea fan about recent results, it would appear he is satisfied with the overall progress that is being made.

“At the moment, he’s good,” said Villas-Boas, who knows his attacking approach will mean little if he fails to deliver silverware.

“We don’t avoid our responsibilities for winning titles.

“We will defend this philosophy to the death, but what is expected from us as a top club is to win titles.”

Chelsea’s poor run of results has coincided almost exactly with a similar slump last season which became a malaise that ultimately cost them the Premier League.

Villas-Boas insisted that was a motivation for his side rather than a millstone around their necks.

“When things don’t go our way, we can’t be happy with what’s passing,” he said.

“This week that has passed, and the results we have been getting, doesn’t hurt our confidence.

“We want wins as soon as possible. We went past a bad period and bad momentum last year, and we want to avoid that again. But we’re not questioning our quality or our talent.”

With Villas-Boas wedded to the way his side plays, would he consider a change in formation, as Carlo Ancelotti did last season in order to halt Chelsea’s alarming slide?

“I think we have played various systems,” he said ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Blackburn.

“We tried a 4-1-3-2 against West Brom, then played the Norwich game with that structure. We had a different one in the second half against Manchester United, 4-2-3-1, with (Juan) Mata in the number 10, and we’ve tried the diamond formation.

“But it’s not about a structure that will make us defend or attack better.”

Chelsea could be set for a welcome injury boost, with Michael Essien set for a quicker-than-expected recovery from knee surgery.

Essien was ruled out for six months after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in July but may be back before the turn of the year.

Villas-Boas said: “Essien is making good progress. We’re looking at the end of December, I think.”