Kenyon puts more pressure on Ranieri

Peter Kenyon, Chelsea's chief executive, has increased the pressure on the club's manager, Claudio Ranieri, by stressing the importance of Chelsea holding off the challenge of Manchester United to finish as Premiership runners-up.

Chelsea were not only beaten 3-1 by Monaco in the first leg of their Champions' League semi-final on Tuesday night, but found that United had closed the gap on them to one point by defeating Charlton Athletic. Ranieri's side must still travel to Old Trafford, but they also face a tricky game at Newcastle on Sunday.

The Chelsea manager is already under considerable pressure following his controversial substitution policy in Monaco's Stade Louis II, but defeat at St James' Park could undermine him even further as his season threatens to fall apart.

"Some of the decisions in the match were obviously bad while others were just baffling," a senior club source said yesterday.

"Why was Juan Sebastian Veron played at left midfield and then Hernan Crespo switched wide as well? There was no good reason to put on another striker when we were at 1-1 and then to concede two goals simply made it inept."

Kenyon warned: "This is the first time that Chelsea have been in the semi-finals so we've already made history. It's always good to be part of that. But when you're in the semi-final, you can almost smell the final just ahead of you. There's another big game coming up and it's not out of our grasp yet as 2-0 would do it for us.

"But we have to concentrate our efforts first and foremost on a massive game on Sunday against Newcastle as we've still got it all to do there as well. Everyone in the squad wants to finish first in the league but it looks as though that goal has eluded us. But finishing second, above one of our long-standing rivals in Manchester United, would still be an achievement."

Kenyon, who sounded out Sven Goran Eriksson before the Swede committed his long-term future to England, has hardly helped to strengthen Ranieri's position at the club. He was photographed in Spain with the Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich this week, reportedly having just met the agent of the Porto coach, Jose Mourinho, one of the leading candidates to replace Ranieri.

That alleged meeting led to Porto launching a complaint to Uefa over Chelsea's apparent interest in their manager ahead of their own Champions' League semi-final first leg tie.