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LEICESTER. — Jose Mourinho insists he will fight to stay as Chelsea manager after accusing his players of betraying him in their 2-1 defeat at English Premier League soccer leaders Leicester City on Monday night. Mourinho told Chelsea’s underachieving stars to be humble as they look to turn around their dismal defence of the English title and claimed he wants to remain in charge.

Chelsea have lost nine of their 16 league games so far this season and sit just one point above the relegation zone, while Leicester climbed back to the top thanks to goals from Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez at the King Power Stadium on Monday night.

“I feel like my work was betrayed,” said Mourinho.

“I worked four days on this match and prepared everything relating to the opponents. I identified four movements where they score almost all their goals.

“My players got all that information, but we still conceded the first and the second goals from those movements.”

Mourinho claimed his team’s hopes of a top-four finish are over after they fell 20 points behind Leicester, despite substitute Loic Remy scoring to give them hope with 13 minutes remaining.

Chelsea’s latest flop is certain to bring renewed reports that Mourinho is on the verge of being sacked, but he is determined to oversee a turnaround and urged his players to show humility as they look to change their fortunes.

“The players who are not performing well must for sure feel attacked in their pride and their self esteem,” he said.

“They have to do everything to get results in a humble way. The players at this minute cannot feel top players or they are superstars. They have to feel ‘I am not the player of the season, not the World champion, not the Premier League champion’.

“The players have to put their feet on the ground and be humble.

“They have to look to the Leicester players and feel these are the top players.

“They have to look to Sunderland and Watford and say we are at the same level as you are.” Asked whether he believed he would remain in charge, the 52-year-old said: “I want to be, clearly.

“I have no doubt and I am not afraid of a big challenge. I want to stay.

“I hope Mr (owner Roman) Abramovich and the board want me to stay because I want to stay. I accept we are around the relegation zone, I don’t accept we are in a relegation battle.”

Mourinho gave a more cryptic response to questions about Eden Hazard, who appeared to ignore his manager’s request to continue when the Belgium midfielder limped off with a first-half injury.

“He made the decision in a few seconds, he was on the floor, he came off, when he went on to try he immediately decided to go back,” said Mourinho.

“I have to believe he is injured.”

Mourinho also conceded Chelsea have no chance of finishing in the Premier League’s top four after Monday’s 2-1 defeat at Leicester left them languishing just outside the relegation zone.

Mourinho’s side are 14 points behind fourth placed Manchester United with 22 matches remaining and even the Blues boss has given up on the crisis-torn champions’ hopes of making up that gap.

“The top four is gone, clearly,” Mourinho told Sky Sports.

“I don’t accept we are in a relegation battle. You look at the table and we are there but you think you are in a relegation battle if you think you are there for three or four months. I don’t think that.”

Chelsea’s latest flop in a dismal season left Mourinho admitting he was growing increasingly frustrated by an astonishing slump that could lead to his sacking.

“When some of your players don’t hit the levels they are capable of it is hard to see,” he said.

“This season we are doing so bad for some reason, although not all of them.

“We were the best team for 20 or 25 minutes, maybe for a maximum of 30 minutes. Then Leicester were the best team for an hour.”

Already beset by reports that he is close to being axed by Chelsea owner Abramovich, Mourinho hoped he had bought himself some breathing space after leading his side into the Champions League knock-out stages last week.

But the loss to Claudio Ranieri’s surprise leaders will turn the heat back up on Mourinho and he responded by vowing to work even harder on the training ground.

“To turn things around, I know only one way: working at the top level,” he added. “Day by day in training I have no complaints with them. But is it frustrating to see what they are doing in training and what they do in matches, then clearly yes.” — AFP.