Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti admitted his side’s 3-0 defeat by Sunderland was the worst performance in his time at Stamford Bridge.
Goals from Sunderland trio Nedum Onuoha, Asamoah Gyan and Danny Welbeck ended Chelsea’s 100% record at Stamford Bridge and Ancelotti was heavily critical of his players.
“Everything was wrong and nobody played well. I have never had a result like this before with Chelsea,” Ancelotti said.
“Sunderland played a fantastic game with more fighting spirit, mentality and attitude. If you don’t show those kind of qualities, it is not a surprise to lose a game like this.
“We were not able to come back into the game. It was a bad day. We were not able to play our football for 90 minutes, only 15 minutes in the first half.
“I didn’t shout at the players in the dressing room after the game because I wanted to speak to them without emotion.
“We’ve lost two games in one week and it is not a good moment,” said the Italian, whose side face a trip to Birmingham next Saturday.
“When everything was going so well a few months ago, I said that difficult times would arrive. Now they have arrived and we have to sort things out in training, regain our focus and play better than we did today.”
The defeat came just three days after Chelsea sacked assistant manager Ray Wilkins, but the Blues boss refused to blame his departure for the defeat.
“We lost because Sunderland played better than us, not because of anything else. Absolutely not,” Ancelotti said. “This result is a big surprise and nobody is happy about the way we have played today. I still believe our squad is strong enough to win the title but we have to make sure that this is only one bad day.
“I heard the crowd complaining when I took Florent Malouda off for Salomon Kalou. But I’m not disappointed about their reaction. Maybe it was the wrong decision but I took it based on what I saw from the bench.”
