Trevoh Chalobah was adamant that Chelsea were “running their socks off” during pitiful defeat to Brighton despite a damning statistic suggesting otherwise.
The Blues were hammered 3-0 at the Amex Stadium, as goals from Ferdi Kadioglu, Jack Hinshelwood and substitute Danny Welbeck saw Brighton leapfrog them into sixth in the Premier League table and severely dent their Champions League qualification hopes.
For the 34th times in 34 games this season, Chelsea were outrun by their opponents (no other side has been outrun more than 29 times) and they remain marooned at the bottom of the distance run per game table, with an average of 106.1km, more than two kilometres less than Nottingham Forest, who are 19th in that statistic.
Trevoh Chalobah has defended the amount of running his Chelsea teammates do (Reuters)
But defender Chalobah dismissed any suggestion this was a problem, insisting that the team are running more than enough.
“I think the boys were running their socks off,” he said after the defeat. “If you look in the dressing room, everyone is tired. It’s nothing to do with effort. We gave it our all. We got beat today.
“We ran today. The stats are stats. The boys are tired.”
Manager Liam Rosenior took a less charitable view of his side’s performance, turning on his players for the first time and describing the display as “indefensible”.
Rosenior was the subject of X-rated chants from the disgruntled away end during the second half of a toothless display in which his team failed to register an attempt on target and Chelsea have now lost five successive league games without scoring for the first time since November 1912.
Liam Rosenior turned on his players after the harrowing defeat (PA)
And the boss didn’t hold back, delivering stinging criticism to his players. Asked whether the performance was the worst of his tenure, he said: “By far. It was unacceptable in every aspect of the game, unacceptable in our attitude.
“I keep coming out and defending the players. That’s indefensible, that performance tonight. The manner of the goals we conceded, the amount of duels that we lost, the lack of intensity in the team. Something needs to change drastically right now.
“The professionalism wasn’t there. It’s a really difficult night. The most difficult night not even just here, so far, at this magnificent football club, but in my career. Some of the things I witnessed today, I never want to see again.”
And while Chalobah acknowledged that it was a step backwards, he was at a loss to explain exactly what went wrong against the Seagulls.
Chalobah is part of a Chelsea side that have lost five straight league games without scoring for the first time since 1912 (Reuters)
“Yep,” he said when asked if the performance constituted a step backwards for Chelsea. “But we gave it our all. Just not the better side.”
“I don’t know [why we started poorly]. We had a game plan. We tried to execute it. We tried our best. Worked on the game plan throughout the week. We got beat today. You have to go again, can’t dwell on these moments.
“We can be accountable. As players, we have to be accountable for the performance. We know how much the fans are behind us, we know they’re disappointed with the results. We’re not winning games. We have to stick together and pull through.”
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