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Villas-Boas confident he's not nearing the sack

Andre Villas-Boas does not fear for his immediate future © PA Photos

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Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas remains confident that club owner Roman Abramovich is not planning on sacking him in the coming weeks - even if results do not improve.

Villas-Boas's side are on a terrible run of form at the moment, with Tuesday's Carling Cup quarter-final defeat to Liverpool their fifth defeat in just nine games. Yet the Portuguese boss, who only joined the club from FC Porto in the summer, has no fears about his future.

When asked why he is not anticipating action from Abramovich, Villas-Boas said: "Because I was brought in for a three-year project and we believe in it."

Questions have been asked about Villas-Boas's approach to the game, with reports of dressing room unrest, but he insists that is not the root cause of the poor results.

"The philosophy is not a cancer - we are not speaking about something that is wrong," said Villas-Boas. "It's at crisis point for everyone that speculates with what is happening and with events that are not happening at this football club. But we just have to pull ourselves together.

"I cannot repeat myself one time and then another time about the situation, we can only grab ourselves to our hard work and continue to believe that we are going to invert the situation."

However, Villas-Boas nevertheless appears to be planning on investing in his squad in January - with Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou and Nicolas Anelka all likely to be allowed to leave when their contracts expire in the summer.

"We have to decide if we want to strengthen the squad or not," he said. "We'll have to see if we are approached by any club regarding our players, which can happen as well, and then make the wisest of decisions."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.