AVB: Speculation will continue

Villas-Boas watched his Blues produce their latest defensive horror show to lose their last-16 first leg 3-1 and pile the pressure on the beleaguered boss.

A visibly drawn Villas-Boas acknowledged afterwards his side had shot itself in the foot yet again as it extended its winless run to five matches.

The Portuguese has repeatedly insisted he has the full backing of billionaire owner Roman Abramovich but this performance would have done nothing to convince the Russian to deliver the vote of confidence his manager now needs more than ever.

"Speculation will continue as the results don't happen," Villas-Boas said.

Having thrown away leads with alarming regularity both at home and abroad this season, Chelsea duly did so again as captain John Terry's injury absence continued to tell.

Juan Mata gave it the dream start but all three of Napoli's subsequent goals were the result of poor defending, even if Edinson Cavani's second carried suspicions of handball.

Villas-Boas said: "We have to solve these mistakes at the back.

"We need this concentration right and this efficiency right, for sure.

"At the moment, without John, a very important player for the team, we have suffered a lot of goals recently.

"We had improved a lot at the beginning of January, so we have missed John.

"But we have full belief in these players and we have to continue to work with them to get it right."

David Luiz's latest mistake was the most costly, gifting Napoli the third goal that made it firm favourite to win the tie.

"It's obvious that that player has become a target," said Villas-Boas.

"He's a fantastic young player with a big future ahead of him, and he has to work to try and be a bit better.

"We suffered three goals. If he's linked to one, he might not be linked to the other two."

As well as taking flak for standing by Luiz, Villas-Boas is bound to face criticism for his decision not to start either Frank Lampard or Michael Essien.

Much has been made of the Chelsea boss' relationship with Lampard in particular, but he insisted his team selection was purely tactical, while Ashley Cole did not start after only just recovering from injury.

"You can have your opinion but it was based on what was the best team in my thoughts," Villas-Boas said.

"Whatever explanation I give you, in the end it would be a fantastic explanation if we'd won the game.

"Any explanation is now useless given the result of the game, so there's no point."

Villas-Boas, who admitted one of the formations he had been toying with but did not end up using had been written on a piece of paper left at the team hotel, added: "I had a conversation with Ashley and Frank.

"Through the players that they are and the players with the experience they have, they felt they could have helped the team.

"That's perfectly understandable."

Only three teams have overturned a two-goal first-leg deficit in Champions League history but a defiant Villas-Boas said: "I want us to be the fourth."

He added: "It's a negative result, of course, but a result we are sure we can turn around at the Bridge due to the amount of chances we had."

Napoli boss Walter Mazzarri was delighted with his side's performance but rued the missed chances that might have seen it kill the tie.

Mazzarri, who watched the match in a room on his own after being banned from both legs, said: "Obviously, I was suffering from not being with my players.

"We saw two top teams playing against each other. Chelsea proved to be a very, very strong team.

"We did amazingly after conceding the goal.

"We had 10 or 15 minutes when we struggled a little bit after that goal but then we've been lucky in finding the equaliser.

"It was just a shame that we didn't get the fourth goal. That could have helped us massively in the return leg."