Willian: I want Chelsea stay

Dom Farrell

Willian: I want Chelsea stay image

Willian has no desire to leave Chelsea during the January transfer window and insists his team-mates must fight to the end in the face of fading title hopes.

The Brazil international celebrated his return to Antonio Conte's starting line-up with a goal in Tuesday's stylish 3-1 beating of Huddersfield Town – a return to winning ways for Chelsea after going down to a surprise 1-0 London derby loss against West Ham last Saturday.

Alvaro Morata's absence at the John Smith's Stadium due to a back injury cleared the way for Willian to take a place in the first XI as Conte selected a free-flowing side without a recognised striker.

The 29-year-old has not been an automatic starter since the Italian switched to a 3-4-3 system in October last season, launching Chelsea's title charge, but he is not looking for a way out.

"I am always happy here at Chelsea, I really like this club a lot with my heart so I am very happy here," Willian told reporters.

"I hope that I won't leave in January. I am happy here and the fans can be calm, I am a Chelsea player."

Conte declared Chelsea's title hopes were over after the West Ham loss and colourfully described any suggestions of catching runaway leaders Manchester City as "bull****" at Huddersfield.

But Willian maintains the players cannot view the 11-point advantage Pep Guardiola's side enjoy as insurmountable.

"I think on Saturday we had a bad game when we lost against West Ham, but we turned the situation around and played very well," he said.

"We have to play in this same way always to try to win the games. The gap is now 11 points and I think we have to fight until the end."

Willian added: "There's a lot of games and, in football, everything can happen. We have to fight. We never give up, we have to continue always."

Dom Farrell

Dom Farrell Photo

Dom is the senior content producer for Sporting News UK. He previously worked as fan brands editor for Manchester City at Reach Plc. Prior to that, he built more than a decade of experience in the sports journalism industry, primarily for the Stats Perform and Press Association news agencies. Dom has covered major football events on location, including the entirety of Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup in Paris and St Petersburg respectively, along with numerous high-profile Premier League, Champions League and England international matches. Cricket and boxing are his other major sporting passions and he has covered the likes of Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Wladimir Klitschko, Gennadiy Golovkin and Vasyl Lomachenko live from ringside.