Chelsea are not in crisis, Giroud insists

Olivier Giroud is adamant Chelsea are not experiencing a crisis after falling to their fourth defeat in five Premier League matches on Sunday.

Chelsea went down 1-0 to leaders Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, adding to losses against Bournemouth, Watford and Manchester United in the last four and a half weeks.

The Blues have consequently slipped to fifth in the top flight, sitting five points adrift of Tottenham, who occupy the last Champions League spot.

Chelsea’s toothless performance against City drew criticism, and when asked if the players are still behind head coach Antonio Conte, Giroud said: “Of course, of course. I don’t even question myself about that, so it is not a crisis.

“We played United away and City away. Obviously, we could have done better but these are not small games.

“We are not happy with that. It is not the day and the moment to question whether we are behind the boss or not. Obviously, we are behind him and sticking together.

“It is not a good weekend for us because our opponents won but we still have nine games to go. We will believe until the end. Keep the faith and some top teams will play against each other.

“We need to keep the focus on this and win the next game. Go step by step. We need momentum to reach this fourth place.”

Full-time: Man City 1-0 Chelsea #MCICHE pic.twitter.com/yK7lndVi3j

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 4, 2018

Giroud started the match alongside Alvaro Morata on the bench as Conte deployed Eden Hazard in the false nine role, but Chelsea failed to register a single shot on target.

“The coach made the tactics and we tried to respect it. It was OK at half-time. It was still 0-0. They didn’t create too many chances, even though they had two or three,” he added.

“I think the target was to be solid until the end and then try to put one in at the end. Obviously, when you concede just after half-time, it is a kick in the leg a little bit but we still thought we could come back at the end. It was not enough but City deserved to win.”