Liam Rosenier was furious in post-match interview (Image: Sky Sports)
Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior and centre-back Trevor Chalobah were completely at odds after their side’s 3-0 loss to Brighton. The Blues’ Premier League slump continued with five consecutive defeats as Ferdi Kadioglu put the Seagulls ahead after just three minutes. Chelsea have currently lost seven of their last eight matches in all competitions, leaving them with the big task of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
Due to consecutive losses, the Londoners now have an eight-point difference with fifth place Liverpool. The Reds can extend that lead to 11 points with four games left this Saturday against Crystal Palace. Coach Rossenyol was completely furious after the defeat against Brighton, accusing his players of not giving 100 per cent effort and labeling their performance ‘indefensible’. But he and Charova disagreed about what went wrong on the south coast after things went sour. The away side targeted X-rated chants at their own manager, telling them exactly where to go.
“By far (that was the worst performance) by far. That was unacceptable in every aspect of the game. The attitude was also unacceptable. I came out and continued to protect the players… That was inexcusable, that performance tonight. The way we conceded goals, the number of duels we lost, the lack of intensity from the team. Something has to change dramatically here and now,” Rosenior said in an angry interview with Sky Sports.
“You can’t keep coming here and keep some of the things we’ve seen. The whole attitude, the spirit was missing. The determination of three or four of the starting eleven (was there). That’s far from good enough for this club. You can’t go out there and lie. I’ll tell you the truth. That was an unacceptable performance on all fronts.”
“That is not what I want to see and I will never see it again. The professional performance was not there. Some of the things I witnessed today are things I never want to see again. “It’s not something I want to see again, not at this club, at this elite football club, or at any other football club. If you’re playing for a club, you can’t even tolerate being accused of throwing in the towel. Yeah, that’s all I’m saying. I’m hurt and numb. It doesn’t represent me, it doesn’t represent the football club anyway.
“Chelsea are a team that epitomizes fight, spirit and determination. Tonight they lacked that in every department. But the team we played today was much better than their involvement in the game. Every game from now until the end of the season is an important game and we need to look like that too.”
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Trevor Chalobah has denied suggestions that Chelsea did not do enough at Brighton (Image: Sky Sports)
No team in the Premier League has traveled fewer miles per game this season than Chelsea (106.1km). This is a far cry from Manchester City, the leaders in this statistic who have averaged 115.5km per game this season.
In stark contrast to Rosenior’s verdict, Chalobá felt Chelsea gave their best effort at the Amex Stadium. “We gave it our all, but we just weren’t a good team. I don’t know. We obviously had a game plan, and we tried to execute it, but… yeah, we tried our best. We’ve been working on it all week, but obviously we lost today. We have to go again and we can’t dwell on this moment,” said the defender, who was making his 43rd appearance of the season.
“We have to look forward to the next game. As players, we have to take responsibility for our performance. We know how much the fans support us and we know they are disappointed. We are not winning at the moment. We have to come together and get through it. Personally, I think the players knocked their socks off.”
“If you look in the dressing room you can see everyone is tired. It has nothing to do with effort. We gave it our all. We just lost today. We ran today. If you look at the stats, you can see the players in that room are tired. We have to pick ourselves up and the semi-final is coming. It’s a big game at Wembley.”
“We are in the semi-finals again, so we have to take it positively, go into the game with a strong mentality and try to bounce back from this loss. We have to stay positive. Negative emotions will not help us. No matter what happens in life, we have to look forward and bounce back.”
Chelsea will be hoping to end their losing streak when they face Leeds United in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Sunday. The Blues then face Nottingham Forest (H), Liverpool (A), Tottenham (H) and Sunderland (A) in their final four Premier League games.
