Thibaut Courtois insists Chelsea’s players are all willing to battle for coach Antonio Conte to ensure he does not suffer the same fate as Jose Mourinho in 2015.

Chelsea were facing their third consecutive League defeat on Saturday when they went 2-1 down at home against Watford but came back to win 4-2.

The build-up to the match had been dominated by talk about Conte’s future at Stamford Bridge and that the squad were unhappy with his training methods.

It was the kind of speculation former manager Mourinho faced two years ago before being fired in December that season.

Courtois told Standard Sport: “We are ready to fight for the coach.

“I remember what happened two years ago under Jose Mourinho and things started to be said, there were stories about the dressing room without knowing what was happening.

“We are happy to show that we are ready to fight. We all know what would have happened [more debate over Conte’s future] if we had lost against Watford.

“There was a moment when we were 2-1 down, we were having difficulties and Watford could have made it 4-1. It was very important to come back to win.

“In 2015 [under Mourinho] we wanted to fight as well but the game didn’t turn out well for us, there was too much bad luck. Sometimes different things happened.

“But we are showing we want to fight again now, firstly as a group of players. We want to win games.

“We don’t want to lose and say we don’t care any more. We want to fight for ourselves, too. It is important for us.

“Some of us remember what happened two years ago and we don’t want the same thing to happen.”

It was reported last week that the players are unhappy with Conte’s training methods. Courtois, insists, however that everyone is “happy”. He added: “Every manager has his own routine. With Antonio we do a lot of tactical sessions and drills. We are fine with it.

“Last season we were champions with his way and we trained much more than this season, so I don’t know why somebody would complain. It’s not as if we don’t like to train.”