Chelsea must regroup ahead of important week, says Courtois

Roman Abramovich still wants to keep Jose Mourinho as manager despite Chelsea suffering an eighth league defeat of a miserable season on Saturday, but there is a growing fear in the club’s higher circles that Champions League elimination on Wednesday could force the owner’s hand.

It was Bournemouth’s first win since since beating Sunderland in mid-September, and moves the south coast club one point clear of the relegation places.

Eddie Howe’s side, buoyed by the manner of their comeback in the 3-3 draw against Everton last weekend, looked very lively from the first whistle, with Blues goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois forced into two crucial saves in side the opening quarter of an hour as the Cherries threatened to take control.

“We had some chances, we didn’t finish them and at the end the game can change. They do not go on the statistics of the game because they were not shots on target but these ones you have to score”. Bournemouth is a very unsafe place and it’s also a small place, so if they do plan something I’ll certainly be aware of it. “That is not only today but in every game it’s like that because we are always more dominating than our opponents”.

“There are not many teams who can continue that, for instance Manchester City won the League and then lost it the next year, Chelsea won the league and are now having a bad spell”. It gives the players some reward for how hard they have worked. One could say Jose is quite simply asking to be fired as his team’s poor form has been accompanied by simply outrageous outbursts to the Media, player squabbles and the much documented dismissal of team Doctor Eva Carneiro.

‘It’s an important week for us.

“Either they do have faith in him, which is I think is eroding all the time, or they are not sure what to do in terms of a replacement”.

“He’s a volatile character, but I think the manager has nearly made a statement”.

“We’ve never been in the Premier League before, so when you come to the champions and beat them, I think it must rank as the best individual result of the club’s history”.

The Chelsea boss, who signed a four-year deal until June 2019 in August, received a vote of confidence from the club on October 5 but the team has so far failed to deliver on a couple of promising performances, with four wins and five losses in 11 games since.

“The players have kept going, they have not lost their honesty and it is nice for them to have some reward for that”.

A Daily Star piece has Manchester United plotting a £50m move for the Tottenham forward next summer.