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This club's willingness to sack managers, particularly when future Champions League participation appears to be in doubt, was established with the dismissal of Luiz Felipe Scolari in February 2009 after seven months in the role.

When asked if he was concerned about Abramovich's lack of patience, Villas-Boas replied: "It's not a question of the owner having patience. We have set out to build something new at this club, and the club is committed to taking on what we're building into the future.

Villas-Boas has lost twice as many points – 14 – from his first 12 league games in charge as Scolari did in 2008-09, though even with the club's desire to reinvigorate the squad, the Portuguese is adamant this should not be considered a season of transition. "Given the dimension of our club, you cannot forget that your fans expect you to win titles. We have to respond to the confidence of the fans.

"There's no running away from responsibilities. There's no calling this a transitional period. We're not asking for time to work. Our responsibility is to win trophies. We're in four still, and we still have the possibility to win them. This has not been the brightest of starts for Chelsea in the Premier League in the last 10 years. It doesn't look good being 12 points behind the leaders, and such strong leaders, too. But the belief is there. The December fixtures give us hope if we're able to make the most of them."

Liverpool have now won three successive games against this opposition for the first time since the early 1970s, with the visitors' midfielder Charlie Adam dedicating the victory to the memory of Luca Jones, the five-year-old son of Liverpool's reserve goalkeeper, Brad Jones, who died this week of leukaemia.