Chelsea skipper Azpilicueta: The mood is not positive

Chelsea have signed Christian Pulisic from Borussia Dortmund for £58million and Blues skipper Cesar Azpilicueta is happy the club is looking to bring in young, exciting talent

The Spain defender said: “Obviously I am very happy that Chelsea have signed Pulisic. He is a talented young player and will come in the summer.

“For the next six months he will be with Borussia, but I’m happy that we are getting young players. Hopefully he can be very good for us.”

Chelsea’s dour 0-0 draw at home to Southampton on Wednesday night has put increasing pressure on Maurizio Sarri as the Blues are hanging by their fingertips to fourth place – the bare minimum the club expect the Italian head coach to achieve. With Arsenal and Manchester United breathing down their neck, Azpilicueta is acutely aware of the need to start scoring goals again.

He said: “First of all, the approach is the same, to win the game from the first minute. The line between winning and losing is very thin in football. In our early games we had less chances but we were more efficient, we scored the goals.

“At the moment, maybe, when we get the chances we don’t put them in the net. Sometimes it’s the difference.

“We will work to improve, because we need to score goals, we need to keep not conceding.

“After missing out on the Champions League last season, the minimum for us this season is to finish in the top four.

“There is still a long way until May. Sometimes during the course of the season you go through better periods and bad periods. At the moment the feeling is not positive.

“But we need to learn from it. We can’t change the result now, but we can work on improving – we still have a lot of games to play and we will have to fight hard to get our targets.”

Chelsea face Nottingham Forest on Saturday in the FA Cup and it’s believed it will be the last game for the Blues for Cesc Fabregas. The midfielder, 31, who has played 138 times for the west Londoners, is expected to sign a two and a half year contract with French strugglers Monaco. He was a substitute against Southampton and appeared to wave goodbye to the Chelsea fans at the final whistle.

Chelsea FC Women return to WSL1 league action on Sunday when Emma Hayes’s side face Everton. The match at Kingsmeadow, at 2pm, is a sell-out – match tickets were offered free of charge. Season ticket holders will be entered into a draw to win the match ball.