Gianfranco Zola admits he would love to return to Chelsea as manager, but the Stamford Bridge legend has backed the struggling champions to recover.

Chelsea host Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League on Wednesday after Saturday’s damaging 3-1 defeat to Liverpool left them 15th in the Barclays Premier League and piled the pressure on boss Jose Mourinho.

SEE MORE: Ancelotti an option for Chelsea but a better fit for Manchester United.

Zola, who made 312 appearances and scored 80 goals for Chelsea after signing from Parma in 1996, is currently manager of Al Arabi in Qatar. But the former Watford and West Ham boss, who has stated his desire to become manager at the Bridge before, still wants to return to west London.

“My dream, let us say my ambition, is to be Chelsea manager some day in the future,” he told www.sc.qa.

“However, I realize that I need to improve as a manager if I want to get there. And I am working hard to achieve my goal. Qatar is helping me a lot in this regard.”

Chelsea have struggled this season and Mourinho has denied a player revolt, with John Terry insisting the dressing room is behind the manager, and Zola expects them to bounce back after one win in their last eight games:

“The club has it in them to turn around their fortunes. A good result in the Champions League game against Kiev followed by a couple of league wins will do the trick.

“There is no one compelling reason for the poor start to the season. The poor form of key offensive players Eden Hazard and Diego Costa has not helped. Defensively as well the team dropped the standards set last year. So the players have lost confidence as a group and this has led to poor results.”