Defender Thiago Silva has admitted that Chelsea's players need to give their "blood and sweat" if they are turn their current fortunes around.
The Blues suffered a fifth defeat in their last eight Premier League matches on Tuesday evening, going down 2-0 to Leicester City at the King Power Stadium.
Goals in the first half from Wilfred Ndidi and in-form attacking-midfielder James Maddison were enough to seal all three points for the Foxes and leave Chelsea and head coach Frank Lampard to reflect on another disappointing performance.
The defeat in the Midlands means the Blues have now won just two of their last eight Premier League outings, meaning their aspirations of finishing inside the top-four for the second season in succession are going to require an awful lot of hard work between now and the end of the season.
However, summer signing Silva, who shouldered the responsibility of captain against Leicester, is adamant that he and his team-mates can achieve their objectives this season.
Taking to Instagram on Wednesday afternoon, the Brazilian said: "Nobody said it was going to be easy. A lot of effort, determination, courage and dedication is required to win.
"That’s why we will not give up. Everything happens for a reason. We need to give our blood and sweat.
"I am convinced we will meet our objectives! Come on @chelseafc."
The Blues' defeat to Leicester has left many big-name pundits questioning the character of Lampard's players, including former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp.
The Sky Sports pundit criticised them heavily last night, insisting they are "soft."
Redknapp told Sky Sports: "There are one or two things that I look at and this will upset Frank more than anything because he was as hard-working a player as I’ve ever seen. But one or two of them are a little bit soft.
"You never want to be labelled a soft team, one that doesn’t run enough, that doesn’t work hard, win individual battles. That can boil down to confidence, but I look at that team right now and there are one or two of them that are just doing enough and they can’t just do enough playing for Chelsea."
