Defiant David Luiz vows to ignore critics

Luiz has come under fire for his performances at centre-half ever since he joined from Benfica for £21million in January last year.

The Brazil international has been guilty of a number of high-profile mistakes, including a huge error which led to Napoli's third goal in their 3-1 win over Chelsea in the first leg of their last- 16 Champions League tie last week.

However, Luiz bounced back with a goal and an assured display in the 3-0 win over Bolton, which was Chelsea's first victory in six games.

When asked if he has found things tough at Stamford Bridge amid all the criticism, he told Chelsea TV: "For me it's normal. I play for a big team and when a big team doesn't win for five or six games the pressure is so big. It can be too much.

"But I believe in my job, my work every day and I believe in myself. I know my football and my personality. Never has the game killed me.

"This is impossible because I know my life before when I had nothing, when my family needed me a lot and when I left my house in Brazil at 14 to start my career to try and give a good life for my family. If people criticise me or not it's the same. I don't like newspapers, I don't look at them. I love my life, my football and my family.

"The mentality of the group against Bolton was fantastic from the first to the last minute. We deserved the win.

"All the players defended well, not just me but Gary Cahill, Ashley Cole and Branislav Ivanovic. All the team defended good and this is what we need to do for the other games. We must improve match by match and I want us to win the next one."

Significantly, his partnership with Cahill, who joined from Bolton for £7m last month, showed some signs of improvement.

Cahill admits he is starting to settle having found the first few weeks at the club hard to deal with.

He added: "I'm not going to lie and say it's been fantastically easy. We have had some sticky results of late and I have been plonked straight in the middle of it all. It has been difficult.

"There is an expectation level from the fans and rightly so. They expect us to win games and come and watch good football. There is nothing wrong with that and as players we have to try and produce that. They will be a lot happier with that performance against Bolton.

"My partnership with Luiz and the whole back four is new. A change has been made and it's not something that is going to click into place straight away. It is different. But the more we work together on the training ground the better the relationships will be."