TheCable

Chelsea midfielder, John Obi Mikel, has declared the team “is right behind” Jose Mourinho as he looks to turn around the club’s fortune. 

The defending champions have lost six of their 11 Barclays Premier League games this season and occupy the 15th position in the table.

But Mikel, who has featured in each of Chelsea’s past three games, said the players trust the coach to turn things around.

“Against West Ham with 10 men we were the better team; the game against Stoke we dominated, played well, came back and took it to penalties; and in the first half against Liverpool we should have been two or three up,” he told the club’s website.

“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 percent then there is a doubt – but we are giving 100 per cent, we are playing for the manager and we are right behind him.”

The Super Eagles of Nigeria player was on for 70 minutes of the Blues 3-1 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,” he said.

“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.”

The “hard work” should continue when they face Stoke at the Britannia on Saturday.