Italian aware that the buck stops at his door

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has laughed off a protest from a fan who put up a banner at the entrance to the club's training ground calling for the Italian to be sacked.



Players and staff arrived at the Cobham training ground on Friday morning faced with two banners draped outside the entrance, reading: "Ancelotti and Abramovich out" and "None of you are fit to wear the shirt".



The banners were presumably the work of a fan disappointed with the club's recent abject form, which hit a new low with a limp defeat at Wolves on Wednesday night.



Ancelotti appears to have the majority of the Chelsea fans behind him and this allowed him to poke fun at the solitary protest.



"There was only one?," joked Ancelotti with reporters on Friday



"If it's only one, there's no problem. Here, you saw outside just one person who is not happy.

"In Italy, it's different. You can find outside the training ground 1,000 people not happy.



"It's difficult to fight with 1,000. With one, you can manage."



The Italian masterminded Chelsea's league and cup double last season but, after an excellent start to this campaign, has seen his side falter dramatically.



The Blues have won just one of their last nine games and sit in fifth place in the Premier League – a staggering nine points behind Manchester United who top the league with a game in hand.



It is the worst run since Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003, but fortunately for Ancelotti he appears to still have the support of the Russian billionaire.



"For a manager, it is important at this moment to have the support of the club, of the players, and obviously of the fans – minus one," Ancelotti added.

"It is the right way to move on quickly. The problem now here is not the relationship with the club, or with the owner, or with the players.

"The problem is the team is not doing well. We've stayed a long time in a difficult moment, we've lost confidence.

"We spoke on Friday with the staff to try to find the solution. The solution is on the pitch, it is not outside the pitch."



The former Milan boss is not alone in being an under-pressure Premier League manager and insisted that he is not surprised by such scrutiny in a game where the buck always stops at the manager's door.



He said: "In football, you usually say when everything is okay, the players are fantastic. When everything is wrong, it is the manager who is not so good.

"When the moment is not good, we have to take responsibility.

"I feel in this moment more responsibility than my players. This is normal, this is not a worry for me."



Chelsea were five points clear at the top of the table back in October and Ancelotti says that the quality of his players means that he is not keen to panic buy in the January transfer window.



"We started very well this season, with this squad," he said. "Everyone was excited to watch our games, was excited to speak about our players, and how we played.

"I think that these players are able to move on with their quality, with their character, with their personality.

"We don't need to have the support from any [new] players."