Chelsea fans won’t be pleased to hear this…
Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has explained what went wrong against Roma last night – and it’s pretty damning for Antonio Conte’s side.
The Belgian shot-stopper saw three goals fly past him in the Stadio Olimpico as Chelsea suffered another defeat in this highly unconvincing start to the 2017/18 season.
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Already nine points off the pace in the Premier League title race, Chelsea are looking rather safer in the Champions League, but the nature of their defeat to Roma will send alarm bells ringing around Stamford Bridge.
Speaking after the game, Courtois admitted that Chelsea suffered from a lack of fighting spirit, particularly in the second half.
Having shown so much character to run away with the title last term, Blues fans won’t be too pleased to hear that their players pretty much gave up on this game at half time.
‘I think we knew Roma would start with intensity and we had to equal it,’ Courtois told BT Sport, as quoted in the Metro.
‘But after 50 seconds, (Stephan) El Shaarawy scores a screamer – it’s unfortunate after 50 seconds you’re down 1-0.
‘I think afterwards we played quite well. We had some chances, we couldn’t score. Then at half-time it was tough but we felt good because I think we played well in the first half.
‘I don’t know why but in the second half we dropped our fighting spirit. We dropped our mentality a bit – that cannot happen, of course.’
Courtois also admitted that almost every game feels harder for him and his defenders this season, noting that it’s a big change from most matches last term.
He added: ‘It’s hard to say what the problem is, last season every game sometimes I had nothing to do, sometimes I had one to save, sometimes against like Manchester City I had to make four or five saves. This season every game is a hard game for the team, the defence, everybody.’