Andre Villas-Boas admitted speculation he could be sacked was inevitable as he sought to arrest Chelsea's worst start to a season since Roman Abramovich bought the club.
The Barclays Premier League campaign is only three months old but Villas-Boas' position has already come under scrutiny following a run of three defeats in four matches that have seen the Blues crash out of the top four.
The Portuguese refused to shy away from the reality of his predicament ahead of Wednesday night's crunch Champions League clash at Bayer Leverkusen, and said: "When results like this happen, the head of the manager is called for execution. I'm not worried by the comments."
He added: "I want to get my team back to winning ways, and we'll try and do that against Leverkusen.
"As we enter a run of results, the negative spiral that this team went through last year, we don't want to go into a similar run of nine games.
"We can turn the results round. The emotions that these people lived last year are enough to make people to want to avoid that stigma this time."
Villas-Boas was charged by Abramovich with transforming Chelsea from a team built on power and pace to one more in the mould of Barcelona.
But while his squad appear to be getting to grips with a new way of attacking sides, they have failed spectacularly to adapt to their manager's defensive masterplan.
"I don't think any kind of answer I can give you would explain what has been happening," Villas-Boas said. "We have set out to play in a different way.
"We have set out in every game to win. We don't speculate in games. We take the initiative in terms of ball possession. We create the most amount of opportunities. We are on the right track. It can take more or less time, but that's not an excuse for the results we've been having."
Source: PA
Source: PA