Injury news for the weekend, will Kalidou Koulibaly be okay for Brighton and Real Madrid?
No, he won't be available for either game. A hamstring injury, it will be a matter of weeks rather than days.
How much of a blow is that?
He's a very good, very experienced player. Albeit, people talk a lot about our squad but when you work and sometimes you haven't got lots of cover and the Champions League squad is different to the Premier League squad. It's a disappointment for him and for us, but opportunity and we carry on without him. Hopefully, he gets fit as quick as he can.
Lack of goals, has that been a bigger problem than you imagined? What are you doing differently?
It's not been a bigger problem, I think I understood it before I came. Trying to address is our job of course. A lot of talk about belief, I've said that word a lot in the last two press conferences. It's work and to replicate on the training pitch and also to have enough urgency in our attacking game that we have numbers in around the box and an idea of how we want to attack. That's part of the work.
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What identity suits these players and do you have time to implement that before such a crucial week?
It's a really good question because in a tight turnaround, the work on a training pitch is not there. We can't work the players physically when you play three games in six days and things like that. Just trying to put the message across about what we want to be and how we want to play but at the moment where games come thick and fast - it's every game, how do we make the best of that? There are general things I see straight away that I want to work on and want to improve the physical capacity to be aggressive in our game, things like that we I think we need to really step up and that's really normal in a period where you're not where you want to be in terms of results and performance. The first thing to affect is absolutely performance and hope results follow that. It's important that the lads are focused in this period and it's important that as a Chelsea Football Club player, you understand the expectations and strive for them. I think that's where we're at and I see it in the squad, a desire to do that. Putting it into practice is the thing.
What role can you play in educating any newcomers - what it means to be a Chelsea player, what it means to win on a consistent basis?
We'll communicate that to them and work towards it. It won't be an overnight process, I've just mentioned the lack of training time and as much as you can have good meetings and an idea, there's nothing better than repeating movements on the pitch. So that's challenging.
In terms of being a Chelsea player and the expectations, it's easily said. It's a process to become a winning team and a winning team by nature. I think there are lots of variables and understanding parts to that of some players who have come into the club and are trying to understand that. Of course, when you come in and results aren't as good as you want, there are different challenges to it. I'm levelheaded about it. I want to work as hard as I can to get every single improvement we can. It's an interesting job for me because it's different to what I've had before in terms of the short term nature of it. That is my job - to work with everything, myself and the staff, to get those improvements and to take us forward in this period.
Can you confirm that Enzo Fernandez has extended his contract?
I can't confirm that because I don't know. I've got enough on my plate to analyse everyone's contracts at the club. The only thing I will say is from working with Enzo, he has been a standout character and player for me in this last week in terms of attitude and quality. Even though he's only been here a short time, he's fantastic for the club, for this club going forward and exactly the kind of profile, type of player we're talking about. He needs to be given time to settle as well.
Have you been through a period like this in your career? What helped you or your team?
I will have been through relative patches like that. Personal moments of not scoring in a run of games, being known as a goalscoring midfielder, or maybe the team having a difficulty in an area, maybe conceding from set-pieces. All of these things I've been here long enough to have all of the extremes of positives and negatives. I understand the situation and the only way to solve it is through hard work and focus. It sounds boring but I think one of my fortunate things is I was fortunate enough to have a career at this club mainly surrounded by a lot of good things that pushed me on but the main thing that pushed me on was my own desire and willpower. *I think anything like that, if it's collective, or individual, it has to be the work process and I'm a big believer that once you do that good things happen. It sounds simple but some things are simple.
Brighton praised for their project, Chelsea scrutinised for theirs - does it show Chelsea need to get the next appointment right?
I think Brighton is a fantastic model. I think you can track their last five, six, seven years and see good progression from Championship to Premier League, keeping Premier League status moving up. That's their path, Chelsea's path is a different one. A club that has been hugely successful for a long period of time. Maybe a club where there are different transitions of ownerships, players naturally have left, trying to bring in players with an eye for the future. Look around and see models everywhere. Arsenal two or three years ago and the work they tried to do in the same direction. Everyone was probably judging them, I remember headlines, negative headlines about the club, owner, and manager. Now it's a fantastic model. You have to understand when you're in a process, a bit of a project, that there will be moments where you have to dig in and people will go 'are you doing the right thing or not?'. I don't think it's important for us to focus on too much opinion. We are where we are, that's a reality. A the same time you work towards a standard and we want to get there.
Even tougher task than you thought?
No. It's the task I thought it would be. I didn't know the detail but I'm an avid watcher of Chelsea. I had an understanding of Chelsea from the outside, as a football person and then when you come in you try not to pre-judge. You want to see what's in front of you when you get the job. I was under no illusion that we came in very quickly to a game after a day of training and then a quarter-final of the Champions League. Game, game, game and some tough games to come in the Premier League. I like the challenge of that. The challenge is what I expected and we'll hit it head-on.
What have you made of the season Brighton have had and the football under Robert De Zerbi?
Really good. I think it impresses everyone, it's a certain style and identity. An identity they've worked towards with Graham working there before in a positive direction and the manager has taken it on and added his touches with stability. We've seen it on the pitch, they're a really good team offensively and defensively and everyone should understand that this is a really tough game for us falling in between two Madrid games and we'll need to be towards our best and physically compete with Brighton. That's something I'm really focused on.
How vital is a win?
It's vital. I guess they all are. We're not getting the results we want. You work towards the idea of turning a corner to make progress because of course things can affect confidence. It doesn't take away from the difficulty of the game. As vital as they all are, we'll try our best to get the right result because we know what that might bring which is an uplift of confidence and feeling when Real Madrid come so quickly afterwards.
What are the motions of returning to Stamford Bridge?
I'm delighted to be back. It never falls short for me, the honour of being manager, head coach in whatever capacity. I've done it before for a season and a half and pretty much loved every minute of it. I'm happy to be back. My overriding feeling is, I've performed at Stamford Bridge in one way or another for a long time over the years, my overriding feeling is a focus on the job and trying to get wins. I appreciate being back but I'll have my serious face on.
What role will Aubameyang have and can he be the number 9 you need?
We'll see in that one. I don't want to go position specific. What I do want to say is, the players have to feel when they train and when they turn up for training and how they prepare, the competitive nature in the squad to get a place in the team needs to be high in every position. Auba is a bit like everyone in the squad, starting before or not starting so much, everyone needs to compete in training and show they're worthy of their place. History says he has a fantastic goalscoring record. So, we'll see.
A lot said about the ownership's ambitions, what have you made of what they've said?
I've been impressed because, I'm not sure if ambitious is the right word, but they are ambitious. I think that obviously needs to be in the right direction. They have a clear vision and people working within the club, a clear vision of where want to get to. I'm very impressed with really strong intentions and involvement. Collaboration, talking and working forward to try and get somewhere is really important in the modern day. I think things should be in a line from top to bottom with communication and there's certainly a lot of that. I've been very impressed with that. There has to be an understanding that this is a long-term project and idea. When you put it in a big scheme of things that has to be understood. There may be difficult steps in that process. The important thing is then that us, people at the club work really hard to keep going in the right direction. I get that feeling from the top of the club.
How much of a difference does it make to have N'Golo Kante in the team and do you think he should be given a new contract?
I'll stay away from that part, that's for the club and N'Golo to talk about. Having worked with N'Golo before, he's an incredible player, one of the best I've been fortunate enough to work with. I know the positives of having him and the negatives of not because in my first season here we missed him for some big periods. When we had him, the impact of him as an individual is very clear. Off the back of a four-month injury we have to manage him. When you have N'Golo fit he is clearly one of the best midfielders in the world. I think you see in his performances against Liverpool and Madrid having just come back from injury that he's not slowing down. When he plays he always offers massive output and massive quality so I'm very lucky to work with.
Limited time to work with players, does that put pressure on a game to see more of them and give someone like Badiashile or Chukwuemeka a chance?
Yes but they can't all play. The maths doesn't work as such. In the period I'm here firstly I want to win football matches because we are Chelsea and that is what is expected from us from myself and fans.
"Secondly, I want to be part of a process in this period where players have an opportunity. If they train, if they deserve to play, then they get an opportunity on the pitch and they can show what they can do.
"Tomorrow [Saturday] will be an opportunity for some players who didn't play in the Champions League, possibly didn't play at the weekend, to come in because it's a game where we absolutely need freshness and energy as well. So every opportunity, they should take."
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