The west London side have the chance to return to winning ways when they host Maccabi Tel Aviv in Wednesday’s Champions League group-stage opener, before welcoming Arsenal to Stamford Bridge on Saturday lunchtime in the Premier League.

Chelsea have “banned banter” between players at training, according to reports.

The Stamford Bridge club have made an abysmal start to the defence of their Premier League crown and are down in 17th place with just one win from their opening five games.

The Daily Telegraph has claimed that all jokes between players are now forbidden at the club’s Cobham training ground in an attempt to find their form.

Soccer fans at a Hapoel Tel Aviv game on Saturday held up a banner reading “Who isn’t a migrant here?!” as part of a campaign by European soccer clubs to express solidarity with the thousands of refugees in Europe. “Matic is still relatively new there but was fantastic last season”.

The axe was as a result of Chelsea poor showing as they went down 3-1 at Everton.

Chelsea’s slump has increased speculation that Mourinho could lose the job for a second time in his career – despite signing a new four-year contract last month. Ivanovic and team-mate Nemanja Matic have received the backing of Maccabi Tel Aviv manager and fellow Serb Slavisa Jokanovic, who spent two years as a midfielder at Chelsea. We have to win, for our own confidence and for the fans.

“There are lots of games to go, we can not feel sorry for ourselves or point fingers”.

“It is a case of getting going, season back on track and a good result on Wednesday will get the confidence going again – we need a boost at the moment and hopefully it will come soon. We will get it out of our system, kick on and get stronger and stronger as the season goes on”, he added.

“Obviously my career and my experience make me believe in myself and I am happy that on Wednesday we have another game and we don’t have to wait 15 days like we did from the last match [the defeat to Crystal Palace]”.