Speculation is rife over whether or not billionaire Blues owner Roman Abramovich will keep patience with Villas-Boas should the Portuguese coach fail to arrest the club's nightmare start to the season. Having been dumped out of the Carling Cup by Liverpool two days ago - albeit with a youthful team - Chelsea could find themselves out of the Champions League on Tuesday if they do not win, or keep a clean sheet in, their final Group E match against Valencia. Failure to reach the last 16 would be unprecedented during the Abramovich era and would compound a start to the Premier League that sees the Blues 10 points behind leaders Manchester City and outside the top four. They could lose even more ground if they do not win at Newcastle this weekend or beat City at Stamford Bridge on Monday week. That would leave them in the kind of position that has seen Abramovich pull the trigger in the past - but Villas-Boas was adamant he would not suffer the same fate, regardless of results over the next 11 days. Asked why that was, he said: "Because I was brought in for a three-year project and we believe in it." Contracts have not prevented Abramovich wielding the axe in the past but to jettison a man he paid Porto more than £13million for during the summer would be hugely embarrassing for the Russian. It would also defeat the object of Villas-Boas' appointment, which was made in order to transform the way Chelsea play over the course of the next three years. That is proving far more difficult than anyone envisaged but Villas-Boas insisted on Thursday his attacking philosophy was not the cause of the Blues' miserable run of two wins and five defeats in their last nine games. "The philosophy is not a cancer - we are not speaking about something that is wrong," said Villas-Boas, who reiterated that his players were fully behind his approach amid fresh reports of dissent. The 34-year-old also denied Chelsea's season had reached crisis point, adding: "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." Even if they do so, it appears inevitable the club will attempt to bolster their squad during the January transfer window. "We have to decide if we want to strengthen the squad or not," said Villas-Boas, who could also allow forward trio Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka and Salomon Kalou to leave, with their contracts due to expire at the end of the season. "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." Villas-Boas hinted on Tuesday night that Drogba would lead the line at St James' Park on Saturday after Fernando Torres flopped on his return to the side against Liverpool. The Chelsea boss insisted he had not run out of patience with his £50million striker, saying: "I don't run out of patience with my players." The same cannot be said about Abramovich and his managers and Villas-Boas will be hoping his reaction to the sacking of Steve Bruce does not prove prophetic to his own job. He said of the ousted Sunderland boss: "Sometimes people demand a lot from you and expect a lot from you, and when the board decides that you are not up to their expectations, they take you out."
