After five years of dominating their London rivals, Chelsea lost their first league game against Arsenal through a scandalous defensive display at the Emirates Stadium last Saturday.
Chelsea have now picked just one point from their last three games and conceded seven goals in the process, which leaves Antonio Conte’s side sitting eight in the league table.
Conte is already under pressure of turning things around, as he says to be suffering from sleepless nights due to the 3-0 humiliation, as he tries to find a quick solution to Chelsea’s problems, Evening Standard reports.
After this game, this defeat, it’s normal for me not to sleep, not just on the Saturday night but for two nights. But when I don’t sleep I reflect.
(Instead of sleeping) For sure I will be watching the game. I have to find the solution very, very soon because against Arsenal we played a very bad game.
It’s right when I talk with my players (after the game) to keep what I tell them (private). It’s normal to do this because these are the views of the dressing room and you must respect this.
But for sure I was angry, but so were the players because we weren’t satisfied in our game and our performance.
Chelsea have kept just one clean sheet under Conte’s management, but since the team conceded a total of 53 goals last season, it’s an issue that the Italian inherited once he took over at Stamford Bridge.
The first goal conceded at the Emirates came through a sloppy Gary Cahill mistake, as the English center-back played a poor back-pass for goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, which was then cut out and chipped in by Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez.
Regardless of those all three goals being blamed on the defence, Conte claims the fault is on the whole team, not just the defenders.
I don’t want to speak about defenders, midfielders or strikers because we win and lose as a team.
We must continue to think in the same way – it’s important. But against Arsenal we understood first me, and then the players, that it’s very tough and we have to improve a lot if we want to stay high in the table and not in the middle of the table.
Arsenal showed they were stronger than us. I think when you want to win you must have a good balance when you attack and when you defend.
It’s important to work together in defensive situations and in offensive situations, not with only the strikers and wingers, the midfielders and then only the defenders. We must work together. I know we can improve a lot and it’s important to understand this.
Chelsea will face Hull City next Saturday, and when Conte was asked if some of the Blues players are in danger of being dropped, he gave a snide hint that through the Arsenal defeat, changes could be made.
I don’t know about this. But we must utilise this game to reflect, to reflect a lot. It’s important to reflect. Me and the players.
It’s important to take this experience as an opportunity to understand that if we want to come back very soon to fight for something important in England, it’s important to improve, to show during the game that you’re a great team not only on paper.
