
Chelsea
midfielder Nemanja Matic insists the Blues are "together", despite slipping
to 16th in the Premier League table.
The Blues are just three points above the relegation zone after 12 games
having sustained a third straight league defeat and seventh of the season,
going down 1-0 at Stoke on Saturday.
Three days on from the 2-1 Champions League victory over Dynamo Kiev, it
turned the heat up once again on Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, who was unable
to attend Saturday's contest due to a one-match stadium ban.
But while it was another bad result in the London outfit's grim campaign
that left their manager's future looking more uncertain than ever, Chelsea
goalkeeper Asmir Begovic has expressed his belief the performance showed the
players are working hard for Mourinho in a bid to turn things around.
And that sentiment has been echoed by Matic, who said: "I think in the last
two games we played good football, but have been unlucky.
"I don't want to say that we have played well in all games this season - of
course, there were some where we deserved to lose.
"But (on Saturday) I think this was not the case and we deserved more.
"What is going well is that the team is together, everyone understands the
situation we are in and we will try to be more together and work hard to
make this situation better.
"In this moment, we haven't had the luck to change something to make it
better for us, but I hope in the future we will."
The 27-year-old Serbia international added: "We are not used to being in
this position, but we don't look a lot at the table.
"Last season, when we were champions, for the first 10 or 15 games we also
did not look at the table - we just tried to take things game by game and
collect as many points as possible.
"I think the table is not realistic now because I think Chelsea deserve
more. We will try to recover points which we lost up to now."