Celtic is about to make a significant acquisition of Brendan Rodgers, their long-standing transfer target, after the player revealed his salary expectations prior to the end of his contract.

Celtic boss Unai Emery on his side’s 3-0 defeat to Chelsea,

which stretched their run without a win to eight games:

“We play 90 minutes today more or less trying to play with personality with the ball,

trying to avoid the transition and trying to stop them in the high press and we didn’t get it.

But Chelsea showed as well this year is different, they are feeling stronger,

they don’t have doubts like last year, their power and capacity as well is higher and we had to try to keep balance.

“We had our chances as well to score, maybe the match could have changed,

but overall they deserved to win and they showed their power for this year.

“I knew this year is going to be more difficult because some teams are feeling stronger,

like Chelsea today. We are going to try again to recover our confidence, everything we are doing

and as well trying to understand this year is being more difficult. We are in our way

building the team and we built last year and we got last year so fast.

“The league is the most important competition for the season and we have to try to get results

again because we need points to be more or less now thinking about the top eight,

or if we want to get top five have to come back with good results.”

When asked if the players are lacking confidence, he added: “Not completely.

away – and last year we got a good result at Tottenham and Chelsea,

but this year it’s been different because we are not a surprise like last year.

They [opposition teams] don’t have doubts now like last year and we were

being consistent last year with the same idea and style with a lot of with the same players we had.

“This year a lot of teams are facing us thinking we are the opponent to be in the top seven and they

are feeling better than last year, like Chelsea, and of course they deserved to win.