ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS has admitted Chelsea are licking their wounds after “a disastrous week” but has insisted his team can recover from successive Premier League defeats to win the title playing the brand of open, attacking football to which he remains committed.

The losses to Queens Park Rangers and Arsenal were suffered while the club were reeling from setbacks off the pitch. The hierarchy’s failure to buy back the freehold to the land upon which Stamford Bridge is built was unsettling, though more unnerving still have been the allegations of racist abuse by John Terry under investigation by the English Football Association.

Chelsea were not commenting on that ongoing process last night, with Terry – who denies the allegations – expected to start this evening’s Champions League group game at Genk, but Villas-Boas conceded the relatively smooth progress of his first few months had been checked.

“You have to be frank and say that our progress was stopped in a disastrous week in terms of results,” the manager said. “But you cannot say it’s all gone to ruin . . . Back-to-back defeats in the Premier League take their toll in terms of the league table but that doesn’t mean that the philosophy is wrong.

“What we are building is still right. We have been punished in the last week in terms of the results but it’s up to us to take on the challenge. We represent a massive club and we’re not running away from the mistakes but we have to respond. We have to be able to know that things are not right when you suffer five goals against you at home. We know we need to improve and we have to improve as soon as possible in the limited time we have.”

Chelsea have failed to keep a clean sheet in the Premier League since drawing 0-0 at Stoke City on the opening weekend, and were defensively error-prone against Arsenal in the 5-3 defeat on Saturday. That sudden vulnerability left the management open to accusations of tactical naivety, even if it appears more as if players are still learning to adapt to the new coach’s system.

Villas-Boas believes a title challenge can be maintained by his team sticking to their attack-minded principles. “I have seen teams win leagues like this, playing positive, open football. Don’t get me wrong: we play attacking football but we mustn’t forget our defensive responsibilities. And I repeat that, before Saturday, we had one of the three best defensive records.

“We were on the right progress up to then. But that doesn’t mean our castle has fallen down. We have to recover. We have the talent, the experience and the ability to do that.”

Chelsea look set to make a raft of changes for the game against Genk and a victory could be enough to seal their qualification for the knockout phase.

There will be no game time for Didier Drogba, who has undergone surgery during his three-game domestic suspension to remove screws from the arm he fractured at last year’s World Cup.

“We took the risk based on his domestic suspension and the forthcoming international break,” Villas-Boas said. “So he’s out of this game and the Blackburn game and should be ready to return for the team when the others go away for international fixtures.”

John Obi Mikel also did not travel, with Villas-Boas opting to rest the midfielder.