Chelsea forward, Olivier Giroud, has dismissed talks of crisis at Stamford Bridge, insisting that manager Antonio Conte has not lost the dressing room.
The former Arsenal striker also spoke on the Italian manager’s tactics in the game against Manchester City on Sunday.
The champions’ recent slump in form continued as they limped to a lacklustre 1-0 defeat at the Etihad on Sunday.
It was Chelsea’s fourth defeat in five league games and left them five points behind fourth-placed Tottenham with nine games to play.
The poor results heap further pressure on a manager whose long-term future was already uncertain.
Giroud said, “I don’t even question myself about that — it is not a crisis. We have played [Manchester] United and City away. Obviously we could have done better but these are not small games.
“We are not happy with that [but] it is not the day and the moment to question whether we are behind the boss or not. Obviously we are behind him and we are all sticking together.”
About the game against City, the Frenchman added, “It is not a good weekend for us because our opponents in the Champions League race won. But we still have nine games to go. We will believe until the end and keep the faith in our game.
“Some top teams will play against each other — you never know. We need to keep the focus on this and win the next game and go step by step. We need momentum to reach fourth place.
“The coach made his tactics, we tried to respect it. It was OK.
“At half-time it was 0-0. They didn’t create too many chances, even if they had two or three. I think the target was to be solid and try to score at the end.
“But when you concede a goal just after half-time, it kills your goal a little bit. We could have come back at the end but it was not enough and City deserved to win.”
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