Thomas Tuchel has told his Chelsea players their shoddy defending “has to stop” after their 4-2 defeat to Arsenal.
The Blues, beaten by Real Madrid and thrashed by Brentford in their previous two home matches, have now conceded 11 goals in three games at Stamford Bridge.
Boss Tuchel was furious about their errors against Arsenal, who were excellent in a pulsating derby.
Eddie Nketiah scored twice – the first goal coming after an error by Andreas Christensen – and Emile Smith Rowe also netted before Bakayo Saka sealed the Gunners’ victory with a stoppage-time penalty after a needless foul by Cesar Azpilicueta.
Tuchel’s team, who will face Liverpool in the FA Cup final, are yet to seal a top-four finish.
And he made his anger clear at his post-match press conference.
He said: “It’s absolutely impossible to do these things in consecutive matches, and we’re doing it.
“It’s a level of mistakes and amount of mistakes in consecutive games here at home. You cannot win football matches like this.
“The players get the full praise when they do it like they did in the last three matches and they have to face reality that it is impossible to win matches when you make mistakes like this.
“I see it now in consecutive matches and it has to stop, otherwise we are in deep trouble.”
But Tuchel insisted Christensen’s mistake was not the reason he was replaced at half-time.
The German said: “He said he cannot continue, so I think he has some problems and that’s why. I don’t take a player of because he does one mistake.”
