By Dominic Fifield in London/theguardian.com


Jose Mourinho does not intend to petition the Chelsea board for new signings in the mid-winter transfer window and has reiterated his trust in the current squad who he believes can still finish the season in the Premier League’s top four.
The champions go into today’s match with Norwich City 16th in the table with a meagre 11 points from 12 games to date this term, having lost three successive league games for the first time in the Roman Abramovich era. At the same stage last year they had 32 points and were en route to securing the title.
Yet, the director of football, Michael Emenalo, has offered public backing of the management, with Mourinho confident his squad will now revive.
“I will not ask for any changes [in the transfer window],” he said. “I will not ask the board [for new players] in January. I’m happy with the players I have. I trust the players I have. I don’t need to ‘clean’ the dressing room, as I heard has been written. And I don’t need to ask the club to spend money in January.
“We put ourselves in a great situation together by being champions. Now we put ourselves together in this situation in the Premier League; so we have to be together, again, to put it right.”
Asked if his team—who will welcome Thibaut Courtois and Radamel Falcao back from injury next month—can become the first side in the revamped Premier League to recover from a position this lowly in the table in mid-November to finish in the top four, he merely stated: “Yes.”
Emenalo had suggested in an interview with the Telegraph that the board remained “in a position to trust a manager who has delivered so much”.
“Nothing that went public was anything I didn’t know before,” added Mourinho. “We were champions four months ago. Not four years ago. Or 10 years ago. The manager is the same. The players are basically the same, too.
“Nobody gives a four-year contract just four months ago if they don’t trust a person. Nobody gives new contracts to players, like we did to so many of them in the last couple of months, if we don’t trust the players. There is trust. And there are reasons for that trust.
“But, obviously, the power in the end is with the owner and the board, and I think the same way they show to me and the players that they trust us, I think it’s time also for us to give a positive answer. Which, I think, we are giving, but not in the results.
“It’s important for us to go to a good period because the owner deserves it, the board deserve it, the supporters deserve it so much, but we deserve it too: I deserve it, the players deserve it. We are working hard and fighting together, so we deserve it.
“Lots of matches are coming now: we have four months without [the interruptions of the] national teams and with the three most beautiful competitions to play. The FA Cup is starting for us. The Premier League and the Champions League. Lots of matches to play.
“In a couple of weeks Falcao will come back from injury. Thibaut in December, too. The situation is good in the squad. We really believe that good things are waiting for us.”