Villas-Boas still confident

Andre Villas-Boas insists he has a perfectly harmonious working relationship with owner Roman Abramovich and is confident he can lead Chelsea out of their current slump.

The west London club on Sunday denied reports of a rift between the pair as “total nonsense” but a 2-1 home defeat by top-four rivals Liverpool later the same day did little to lighten the mood at Stamford Bridge.

“He [Abramovich] didn’t pay 15m euros (£13.2m) to get me out of Porto and another fortune to get me out of Chelsea,” he said.

“It is not a question of the owner having patience. I have said we have set out to build something new at this club and the club is committed to what we are building for the future.”

Defeat to the Merseysiders was the club’s second successive Premier League home defeat and third in five in the top flight. People who bet football online may have been shocked by this.

It means the Blues now trail early-season pace-setters and big-spenders Manchester City by a massive 12 points.

Villas-Boas, who arrived in the summer after guiding FC Porto to a Europa League, Primeira Liga and Portuguese Cup treble, said he would not be rushing for the panic button and insisted Chelsea were a work in progress.

Another concern for the young coach is Chelsea’s high-profile meetings with Manchester United, Arsenal and now Liverpool have all ended in defeat. The Premier League odds show how much work they have to do.

A solid, if not spectacular, start to the season has been quickly forgotten about but Villas-Boas insisted he was committed to the club.

“Our commitment is to the club and to what we are doing in the future and we have enough talent to compete in all competitions. This is our perspective at the moment,” he added.