Ben Chilwell admitted Chelsea produced another substandard performance in the loss to Arsenal and the left-back explained what is required for the Blues to get out of the ‘deep hole’ we currently find ourselves stuck in.
Last night’s London derby was all but over by the 34th minute of the game when Gabriel Jesus put the Gunners 3-0 up, and though Frank Lampard’s side showed signs of life in the second half, it was a case of too little, too late.
Chilly was as honest as ever as he assessed the game and our recent form.
‘We’re hurt and angry, every negative emotion you could think of,’ he said.
‘It was very poor. We knew that if we came here and played like that we would have to expect to concede three goals. We weren’t getting tight to anyone, weren’t laying a hand on anyone. We were passive.
‘We’re probably quite a nice team to play against which has been the story of the whole season to be honest. It seems to be every team that plays against us has a good game. That’s not a coincidence. A lot of the performances recently have been below the standard we set. The first half was another example of that. We have to look at ourselves.’
Having lost six games on the spin for the first time in over 30 years, Chilwell knows the Blues are in a bad spot right now, but what the England international also believes is that the remaining weeks of the season are crucial despite our lack of involvement at either end of the table. He explained the reasons why.
‘We are in a deep hole at the moment. To get ourselves out of it we need to stick together. There will be a lot of outside noise, but we need to stick together, train hard and coming into games show the effort the fans want to see.
‘That’s all we can focus on now: doing it for ourselves and importantly for the fans, giving them something positive in the last five games. They have stuck with us all season. We went over to clap them and they’re still there, so we really have to do it for them.
‘It’s pretty big going into next season. If we can get some results, show we’re a team and give the fans something to smile about, hopefully we can take that into pre-season.’