AFTER the pressure intensified following the soporific defeat at struggling Wigan this week, manager Sam Allardyce has once again come out fighting by insisting there is no crisis engulfing Newcastle United.

The awful Boxing Day defeat at the JJB Stadium followed the pre-Christmas home draw with bottom-club Derby County and today the Magpies head to Chelsea - unbeaten in the league at Stamford Bridge for 72 games - in the hope of springing a surprise.

Allardyce's situation has been made worse this week with controversial £5.8m midfielder, Joey Barton, again in trouble.

The 25-year-old has been remanded in custody until January 3 after being accused of common assault and affray following a fracas near a Liverpool fast-food restaurant earlier this week. He misses today's trip to Stamford Bridge and the visit of his old club Manchester City to St James' Park on January 3.

While Barton has to cope behind bars, Allardyce has to deal with his own mounting problems.

Billionaire owner Mike Ashley was urged to sack the 53- year-old while adopting his customary position among Newcastle's travelling fans at Wigan, where the name Alan Shearer was regularly touted as a replacement.

But Allardyce remains defiant and has called on supporters to show restraint ahead of today's testing trip to Chelsea.

"In the last two games we were close to putting two results together to go above Blackburn and level with Portsmouth, who are deemed to be the best two teams after the big four in the Premiership," said Allardyce.

"But all of a sudden, because of this football club and its past history, it's all doom and gloom. It's never anything other than crisis, but there is no crisis here. There's only the disappointment of a result and performance that wasn't good enough. But it's not a crisis.

"People outside make it a crisis or try to influence it, but what we have to do as a team and as a group of people is to stay strong and be focused on what we know is right and not let those influences affect us."

Allardyce is only seven months into his £3m-a-year contract and he continues to refer to himself as being one of the best managers in the country.

But if the former Bolton boss is to achieve his goals during his time at the helm in the North- East he believes Ashley, chairman Chris Mort and the successstarved fans need to remain patient.

"I've never known anybody set up a successful business in three or four months,"

said Allardyce. "It simply can't happen. In many ways, some people - far too many of them - have gone out in the past and tried to buy their way to the top, but that's not sustainable.

"The best two sides this season are Arsenal and Manchester United and they've got the two longest-serving managers.

Nearly the next longestserving manager in the Premier League is Rafa Benitez and then David Moyes - look at that long, slow progress at Everton.

"As a football club I'd put us more in line with Everton than I do with Arsenal or Man United, Chelsea or Liverpool, because the rest of us are a long way now from those top four."

Having spent more than three decades in professional football, the man from Dudley is well aware of the importance of recording positive results over the festive period.

And, after taking just a point from Derby and Wigan, Allardyce knows points will be even harder to claim from fixtures with Chelsea and Manchester City.

He said: "It's been a very tough Christmas and a very tough week for us, that goes without saying.

It's especially tough when you know you've had an opportunity, when you've worked so hard to get yourselves back into the picture."

He suggests to make sure things take a turn for the better on a more regular basis his squad must treat encounters with the division's poorer relations more respectfully.

"The quicker the players understand that the biggest games for us are not the ones against Chelsea and Manchester United the better," said Allardyce. "They are for the fans, but not for us.

The biggest games for us, the ones we should concentrate the most for, are the Derbys, the Wigans, and making sure we have a peak performance for the winnable matches.

"The players are my challenge, nothing else. It's them I'm interested in and the club as a whole after that.

"I have to make them better and more consistent.

"I'm working on that 24/7. In between that, if the results are good, bad or indifferent, it's about not changing what you know works, sticking to your guns and being consistent in your performance as a manager."