SOCCER:ROMAN ABRAMOVICH has moved to rebuild his relationship with Carlo Ancelotti by offering the Chelsea manager support and reassurance ahead of tomorrow's awkward trip to Newcastle.

The champions may have lost their position at the top of the Premier League by the time their game at St James’s Park kicks off after a dreadful run of three defeats in four games, a sequence that coincided with the owner’s untimely decision to remove Ray Wilkins as assistant first-team coach. It has been more than 11 years since Chelsea last lost three consecutive league games and, while Ancelotti has admitted he feels “under pressure” to arrest the recent slump, Abramovich has contacted him to reaffirm his backing.

Text messages were exchanged after last weekend’s defeat at Birmingham City, a game the visitors dominated only to be undermined by wasted chances, with Ancelotti now reassured, if aware that results have to improve with a daunting fixture list to come in December.

“When the team play good football, Roman is happy,” said the Chelsea manager, whom Abramovich had been keen to sign in the summer of 2008 before the Italian swapped San Siro for Stamford Bridge a year later.

“If we don’t reach the right results . . . but he was happy after the game against Birmingham. He always supports me and is supporting me also in this moment.

“I am under pressure, but that’s normal. You have to look at the results, and the results are not good and I have to take responsibility for them and stay focused on my job. But when you are under pressure it doesn’t mean your job is not safe. The owner isn’t putting me under pressure. I am putting myself under pressure because, when that happens, I concentrate more. I have to use all my experience to give more opportunities to the players to do better.

“A strong manager, a strong team, has to be able to cope under this pressure. It’s impossible to be top of the table all the time. Last year we weren’t – we dropped down at one point – but we reacted well and won the title.”

While recent results have deteriorated, Ancelotti’s position at Chelsea was made to look more vulnerable by the untimely and unexpected decision to remove Wilkins and replace him with Michael Emenalo. While relations were strained, the Italian has since attempted to draw the line under that episode and will now go to Tyneside looking to build on the victory, albeit unconvincing, over Zilina in midweek with games against Everton, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, Arsenal and Bolton Wanderers, currently fifth, to come next month.

The performance at St Andrew’s last Saturday, even in defeat, was at least encouraging and came after the management called the squad together to discuss their sloppy displays against Liverpool and Sunderland.

“We spoke about football, about the problems we had been finding out on the pitch,” said Ancelotti. “Just this. Their opinions were very good, very clear and everyone was agreed.

“The meeting we had last year, after the loss to Internazionale in the Champions League, was a bit different. We’d been knocked out of an important competition, so that meeting had a different aim. We wanted to change direction and mentality, to focus the players on the Premier League. This meeting was just to speak about football and the difficulties we’ve been having on the pitch.”

It will be another patched-up Chelsea team at Newcastle tomorrow, with the injured Alex asked to play in the continued absence of John Terry – the champions hope to have their captain restored for the visit of Everton next weekend – before finally undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee next week. Frank Lampard is due to return to training on Monday, Michael Essien is suspended and Yuri Zhirkov continues to struggle with a calf complaint, leaving the manager’s options quite limited.