HEAT ON ROMA

Chelsea arrived in the Italian capital to find a Roma side under serious pressure on the home front.

With five straight defeats in all competitions going into tomorrow night's game, their form is a shadow of that which took last season's race for the Scudetto into the final day.

Indeed the Giallorossi came out of the weekend hovering above the relegation positions in Serie A following a 2-0 away defeat to Claudio Ranieri's Juventus. Their home game three days later had been rained off after six minutes and after Chelsea they face matches against fellow strugglers Bologna and local rivals Lazio.

One of Italian TV's Sunday night analysis shows carried footage of an angry collection of Roma fans 'welcoming' the players at the airport following the flight back from Turin. A studio discussion took place in front of a large picture of coach Luciano Spalletti and a headline indicating this is the last chance.

It was against the backdrop of this ferment that Spalletti, with his World Cup-winning midfielder Daniele De Rossi next to him, walked to face the media at Roma's out-of-city training headquarters as part of the build-up to the meeting with Chelsea.

There was talk of tactical, technical and maybe physical problems in the Roma camp. Questions were taken on the relationship between coach and players, coach and medical staff and whether all areas of the club are taking their share responsibility.

Spalletti, who has worked at five clubs previously, pointed out he has been in such positions before and has the experience needed to sort it out.

He denied his sons are being bullied at school but did say: 'It is a difficult situation when my professional life affects my private life. I don't enjoy going out so much at the moment.'

'It is melodramatic just to talk of the coach,' said De Rossi who insisted there is no problem between players and Spalletti. 'We all have to accept our responsibilities. We have to do our best for players, club and coach.'

Whether that responsibility will be shared with Francesco Totti on Tuesday night remains to be seen. The captain missed Saturday's games through injury and did not join in the training session with his team-mates on Monday.

Former Chelsea defender Christian Panucci may lose the centre-back position he occupied at the Bridge two weeks ago to Juan, the Brazilian international having recovered from injury.

Whether Totti or no Totti, Panucci or no Panucci, Spalletti is indicating little change from the tactics seen at the Bridge when chances were few and far between.

'Until the last 15 minutes, we played quite well and stopped Chelsea,' he said. 'They scored because of their ability, not that we were more concentrated at other times. Our team was very compact, we played very close and I think this is the right way to stop Chelsea.

'In London we played the way we should have done against Chelsea. They shot at the goal just a couple of times more than us. We got very close to the box until the last pass,' he said, highlighting John Terry's brilliant tackle on Brighi to prevent a gilt-edged shooting chance after a Totti pass.

'Chelsea are a very strong team,' said De Rossi, 'but they played better against other teams than us, scoring four or five times in recent games. They have world class players, I can mention Cech, Terry, Lampard, Drogba, and they have good organisation.

'But if we were are able to play like we did against Real Madrid or Lyon in the past, I am sure we can win even though they are one of the best teams in the world at the moment.'