Andre Villas-Boas has conceded that Chelsea's title challenge is 'not looking good,' and that 'we will have to win all our remaining games to have a chance of winning the league.'
Having suffered consecutive home defeats to title challengers, the second, a 1-2 loss to Liverpool, he is pinning his hopes on a resurgent set of results in December. 'December is vital for us,' he said.
The Blues face Newcastle United, Man City, Wigan, Spurs, Fulham and Aston Villa in that month.
However, by then, they could be further than the 12 points that currently separate them from runaway leaders Man City.
'We have to play well, we are playing well,' he added. But somewhat contradictory he then says, 'the amount of goals conceded is a worry. we are in a bad run.
'But we trust our defence, we have immense talent there. We will analyse the performance again, but the game is solved by players and their talents.
'We will stick together as a group as we have the players in defence to solve the problem.
'We know the areas where we have to improve, but the unpredictability [of football] will always be there.
'The Premier League is behaving differently than the last couple of years.
'Lots of teams have improved and the are five teams fighting for the title. 'We have to score from our chances.
'It seems that our opponents have found the efficiency [to win games] we have lacked.'
Villas-Boas could find 'no positives' from the defeat to Liverpool. 'We came back stronger in the second half,' he said.
'We scored and it looked like the result would go our way. But Liverpool took advantage of their only chance of the half to get three vital points.
'The second half was the opposite of the first.
''Liverpool were aggressive in the first half and the decisive moment was when Glen Johnson scored their second [ three minutes from time].'
Asked if I was time to change their playing philosophy, Villas-Boas was unrepentant: 'You can suffer the same result if you change your philosophy,' he said.
Unlike many managers of the recent past, Villas-Boas is confident he will not be sacked. The club is committed to building for the future. Roman Abramovich did not pay [Porto] £15million for me only to pay me more to get rid of me.'