Roman Abramovich met André Villas-Boas and his players after the squad were hauled in on their day off following the 2-0 defeat at Everton on Saturday, the club have confirmed. The billionaire owner, who is unhappy with recent results, addressed Villas-Boas and his players, having spent almost every day last week inspecting the regime at close quarters.

His presence at the club's Cobham training ground, which has coincided with the Russian being available from a high-profile court case as well as a slump in Chelsea's results, has sparked speculation over Villas-Boas's future. But the Chelsea manager and the club have continued to maintain that the Portuguese's position is not under threat and that Abramovich's active interest is perfectly normal.

Almost two years ago, Chelsea went on to win the Double after the Russian held a post-mortem into their Champions League defeat by Internazionale. There is little chance of a repeat this season, with Chelsea 17 points behind the league leaders Manchester City and in fifth spot, although they are well-placed in the FA Cup and still in the Champions League.

As well as progress in those competitions, a top-four league finish would appear the minimum requirement for Villas-Boas, who has been cut more slack than any of his predecessors under Abramovich. The owner sacked Luiz Felipe Scolari three years ago when he began to fear a top-four place would not be secured and the Blues are in a far worse position now than they were then.

Villas-Boas admitted the performance at Everton was one of the poorest since he took charge last summer and the goalkeeper Petr Cech agreed it was simply not good enough. He told Chelsea TV: "When you lose a game 2-0 and you are Chelsea Football Club playing for the Champions League and with big expectations, losing is not good enough and the performance was not good enough, that's why we lost.

"We took so many passes side to side and we never really opened them up. In the second half, we tried to play more direct but they were fighting well and kept organised, and 1-0 up so early became so much more difficult to break."