Shevchenko 'giving 100%'

Striker Andriy Shevchenko claims he is "not bothered" that he is not classed as one of Chelsea's "untouchables" by manager Jose Mourinho.

The £30million Ukraine international was dropped to the substitutes' bench for the 1-0 midweek Barclays Premiership victory over Newcastle and there has been much speculation about his future at Stamford Bridge.

"This doesn't bother me at all," claimed the former AC Milan striker. "A great team cannot guarantee a starting place to anybody. If you are not in a position of producing what the manager asks of you, then it is only right that someone else plays in your place. I am giving 100%, we'll see in the end if this is the right place for me or not."

He added: "It is not that I do not score any longer. I do not score as much and as regularly as before. But in truth I still score a few.

"We players are not machines, there are times when the wheel turns in a different way: you have to have belief."

Shevchenko also played down talk of him leaving Chelsea and asked for time to prove his real worth.

"When one decides to take a certain route, you must follow it to the very end. Only at the end will you be able to see if things have gone well or not," he added.

"I have no idea where all the rumours stem from. I only know there are difficult moments and easy moments but when you make a choice you have to get to the end of it.

"Somebody who's made a precise choice and left a great club where he was happy for seven years, to join another great club, cannot give up like that."