Chelsea players called in for crisis talks with Roman Abramovich on their day off

The 2-0 defeat at Everton means the Blues have picked up just 12 points from their last 10 games.
Villas-Boas is under increasing pressure for his job especially now they have slipped below Arsenal and out of the the Champions League places.

The club confirmed the players were called in on their day off yesterday for a meeting, which was also attended by Roman Abramovich. The club insisted the owner's interest was perfectly normal and the manager's position was not under threat.

With the Premier League title long given up, Chelsea face a vital FA Cup tie against Birmingham on Saturday and an even more important Champions League last 16 match against Napoli on Tuesday week.

Lampard admitted performances are not good enough and said: "We have been fighting to win leagues, now we are fighting for fourth and that hurts, so we have to react. We know we are in a bad way and we have to dig ourselves out of it.

"Different players do come in but whoever plays has to live up to the standards we have set. If we play like we did at Everton against Napoli we will give ourselves a mountain to climb."

Villas-Boas wanted to take all the responsibility
for the display at Goodison Park but when asked by Chelsea TV if the players need to look at themselves, Lampard added: "Of course we do, it's a group thing.

"It was a bad performance from start to finish.
When you come to Everton the one thing you know they're going to do is fight you, press you and make things tough and we didn't react to that.

"We created two or three chances and that's not up to standard. We can only take that on the chin and apologise to the people who came up and watched it because that's not good enough for
Chelsea."

The visitors went behind after five minutes when they lost possession from their own throw-in and

Lampard added: "Things like that are happening and that's not pinpointing anyone individually but when you're making mistakes it is very difficult."

"The disappointing thing was the second half because we didn't really kick on and try to get back in the game.

"That's the Chelsea we know but now we're not doing it."

Keeper Petr Cech said: "At times we missed real understanding between the midfield and strikers. We took so many passes side to side and never opened them up."

Ashley Cole is set for an extended spell on the sidelines after suffering a knee injury. Villas-Boas said: "It doesn't look good."