Jose Mourinho has received support from Chelsea defender Gary Cahill in the wake of the club’s terrible start to their Premier League campaign.
The Blues have won just two of their opening eight games of the season, losing four and drawing the remaining two. It is the defending Premier League champion’s worst start to a top flight campaign since the 1978 – 1979 season, when a win was worth just two points.
The poor start led Chelsea’s owner, Roman Abramovich, and the board issuing a statement of support for the Portuguese manager; a statement that Mourinho said he was ‘grateful’ for.
Now Cahill, away on international duty for England, has said that Mourinho also has the backing of the Chelsea squad. He told BBC Radio 5live, “We are all around him. Dare I say he doesn’t even need backing when you have done so much in the game, not just at Chelsea but in other leagues too. It is obviously nice to have that and he certainly has it from the players and the club”.
Cahill was also honest about his own part in the poor start to the season, saying, “The Southampton game for me personally was a real low. I have come away here [on international duty] totally determined to make it right when I get back”.
Chelsea’s campaign will resume after the international break with a game against 18th placed Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge. A game that would normally be considered to be routine has suddenly become a ‘must win’ for Jose Mourinho and his Chelsea team.