Chelsea interim head coach Calum McFarlane admitted his underperforming side let their supporters down on the final day of the season after failing to secure a place in Europe.
A 2-1 defeat at Sunderland meant the Blues finished 10th in the Premier League table.
McFarlane, who stepped into the hotseat for a second interim spell in April following the sacking of Liam Rosenior, conceded that the squad’s inconsistency ultimately ruined their hopes of salvaging European football.
“The feeling in the dressing room is obviously of disappointment,” McFarlane said at his post-match press conference.
“We wanted to win today and make the best of a bad situation and get into the Europa League. We weren’t able to do that. We didn’t get the performance we wanted, or the result.
“The message to the fans—we’re as disappointed as them. We’re gutted that we couldn’t do it for them. They’ve been brilliant this year.
“They’ve really supported us, especially in the last couple of weeks when we’ve needed to win games.
“You felt their presence and unfortunately, we’ve let them down today. We weren’t able to put the performance in that they deserve.”
The campaign has been an incredibly turbulent one for Chelsea, who saw Enzo Maresca leave by mutual consent in January before Rosenior’s brief, four-month tenure unravelled in April.
Despite the disruption, McFarlane believes a squad containing the baseline talent of Cole Palmer and João Pedro should have been operating at a much higher level across the piece.
“It’s quite a disappointing end to the season,” he added. ”
We should be finishing a lot higher up the league. For me, with this group of players and the talent we have, we should be in the Champions League. We haven’t been. We’ve been too inconsistent at times this year, and it’s ultimately cost us.”
Discipline again proved to be Chelsea’s undoing on the final day as they picked up an astonishing 11th red card of the Premier League season.
It is a glaring issue that incoming manager Xabi Alonso will have to sort out quickly.
McFarlane said: “It’s definitely an issue, it’s definitely a problem. I think we’re by far the team that’s got the most red cards in the league.
“If you look at Arsenal, for example, who have won the league, I don’t think they had one red card. So it doesn’t help to have that many red cards. It’s definitely something we need to look at and improve for next year.”