Nigeria’s John Obi Mikel has insisted that Chelsea’s stars are behind their manager, Jose Mourinho, despite the clubs worst start to a Premier League season.
Chelsea have lost six of their opening 11 league games this season and it means the Blues are currently languishing in 15th place on the league standings.
Mikel says the players are giving it their all, noting that they are all behind Mourinho.
“The goals and the wins are not coming, but you can see we are playing for the manager and we are right behind him. There is no doubt about it. If anyone can turn this around I definitely think he is the one.
“Last year, we were champions and won two trophies. Jose knows this club more than any other manager and he is the most successful manager in this club’s history.
“If you say to the players that we are not giving 100 per cent then there is a doubt – but we are giving 100 per cent, we are playing for the manager and we are right behind him,” Mikel was quoted as saying in London.
The Super Eagles midfielder played 70 minutes of Chelsea’s defeat to Liverpool on Saturday, a game he looks back on with a degree of frustration at the chain of events which contributed to a disappointing afternoon at Stamford Bridge.
“We knew it was going to be a difficult game but we started well and it was a good performance.
“We got the goal and if we went into the break 1-0 up it would have been much easier but the referee played two minutes and 30 seconds (stoppage time) and if we’d played the exact minutes we would have gone in at 1-0.
“Then the referee gave me a yellow card for my first foul and just after that Lucas committed a foul – for me and for everyone else it should have been a (second) yellow card.
“Everyone can see how much hard work we are putting in and we are playing well, but the results are not coming for us.
“Every shot is a goal, every deflection a goal. We just need a bit of that luck that we don’t have at the minute. But you can see the team is giving it everything, we’re working very hard,” he said.
