Carlo Ancelotti insists Roman Abramovich is behind him

Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti will go into Sunday's clash against title rivals Tottenham with a vote of confidence from owner Roman Abramovich.

The Blues are in the midst of their worst run for over a decade but the Italian does not fear for his job and insists he has the support of the Russian billionaire and his players.

"I don't fear for my job," said Ancelotti. "I feel I have the total support of my players, which is very important. I feel I have the total support from my club. For these reasons, I don't have fear.

"I am an optimist that everything will be okay for this season. I spoke with Roman after the game on Wednesday and he gave me total support.

"He understood the problem of the team. He's doing his best to give every one of us at the club, my players and my staff, his total support."

Chelsea have slipped to third in the table after just two wins in their last eight games in all competitions. They have not won in the Barclays Premier since their home victory over Fulham on November 10.

But Ancelotti believes his players still have an appetite to emerge from their current slump in time to retain their title.

"I don't think it's a question of appetite," said Ancelotti. "The players have appetite. They have good motivation. Everyone knows it's not a good moment now and we're not happy. We were very happy when we won the double.

"So it's easy to have good motivation now because every one of us is not happy. We have to leave this moment. We must do everything to move on quickly.

"The team is unhappy in this moment, but the players are focused and working hard to move on. It's very difficult. The easy things are difficult at this moment, but we can't lose confidence.

"We have skill, we have ability, we have personality. We can move on and stay in the fight for the title. Obviously we want to move on.

"We will use the game against Tottenham to move on. I don't know if that's possible because they're a strong team, but surely we'll do our best against Tottenham."

The Italian continued: "We have to stay focused just on the training pitch. We have to think to train well, stay focused on the sessions.

"I have experience of this. You have to go back to basics, defend well to make sure you don't concede, and play simply.

"We want to play our football. We don't want to change identity or shape, because we have confidence playing this shape.

"We've been working with it for a year-and-a-half. We have to stay calm, stay quiet, don't be afraid. In football, in sport, bad moments happen. You have to maintain good control of the emotions.

"I said we have to work on the training pitch, improve our confidence in training - to improve us offensively and defensively.

"I'm not happy, but I don't know any other way to change it. I'm not happy when Chelsea don't win, but that doesn't mean I'm sad or lacking motivation. I have strong motivation.

"Everyone thinks Chelsea aren't good enough to fight for the title because our last month was not good. But I think we'll be in competition also this year."

Ancelotti will be without the services of Frank Lampard as the England international midfielder is still not fully fit and short of match practice following groin and tendon injuries.

The coach added: "He trained well, but we thought that this would be a very tough game against Tottenham and we didn't have a test with a game.

"We have to arrange a game for him, maybe Thursday. After that, I think he can be available against Manchester United.

"He doesn't have a problem training. Everything is okay. It'll be better to check him in a friendly game, and then play him against United."