Chelsea captain Reece James has slammed his side's defensive frailties after a frustrating 2-2 draw with Qarabag in the Champions League. The Blues squandered their advantage against the Azerbaijani side at the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium, tumbling to 12th position in the standings.
Estevao Willian fired Chelsea into the lead within the first 15 minutes, yet the west London club's advantage proved short-lived. Leandro Andrade levelled matters for Qarabag on the half-hour mark, capitalising on a rebound within the penalty area. Moments before the interval, Marko Jankovic thrust Gurban Gurbanov's team into the ascendancy, converting from the penalty spot after the ball cannoned off Jorrel Hato's arm at close range.
Alejandro Garnacho clawed one back early in the second period, though Chelsea were unable to secure a winner.
Speaking to TNT Sports following the encounter, James offered a scathing verdict on his team's display.
"Disappointing to sum up," said the Blues captain. "Coming here, we wanted to win. We felt that we set up strong, but we made two errors that led to a penalty and a goal that we gifted them, and then to get back into the game is difficult.
"Their fans were quite good tonight. The pitch was difficult to play, but this is something we expected and didn't quite adapt to."
Reflecting on Qarabag's comeback, James commented: "Two mistakes led to two goals, and it's difficult when the momentum in the game changes, and we simply didn't do enough. We had a few chances we didn't take and we only have ourselves to blame.
"If you look at the goals that we have conceded, they haven't been from amazing play, more our mistakes, and that is something we need to cut out."
On the topic of Estevao, who was named man of the match, James added: "He is an amazing player. He has the world at his feet. Obviously he is still so young, so we need to protect him and keep him healthy. He has a lot of development still to come but we are super happy with him here."
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca echoed James' sentiments in his post-match press conference, stating: "The intention is always, you know, when we make changes, is because the intention is always, because we think that the plan with the players that they start against is the correct one.
"I think today, I don't know, the feeling that it's about, you know, is more, because we start in the right way, we score the goal and then, again, we concede two goals, especially in the first one with 10 players.
"So, for me the big difference today has been, especially in the second box, in our box, we concede two goals that we can avoid and in their box, for the amount of times that we are there, probably we can be more clinical.
"The goal we conceded, they are silly goals for me. In their box, for the amount of times that we arrived, we have not been clinical enough. So this is the big difference for me."