Chelsea's horror run of form continued as Everton condemned them to their fourth consecutive defeat across all competitions - and Liam Rosenior accepted the blame. The Toffees thrashed the Blues 3-0 in a Premier League rout at the Hill Dickinson Stadium with Beto scoring a brace and Iliman Ndiaye finding the top corner. The defeat sees Chelsea waste a valuable chance to leapfrog fifth-placed Liverpool, who lost to Brighton earlier the same day. Just a draw would have been enough to overtake the Reds on goal difference.
Instead, the Londoners' woeful streak continued with another heavy loss. The nightmare 10 days began with a 5-2 defeat against PSG in France. That was followed by a 1-0 home defeat to Newcastle in the Premier League before the second leg against PSG ended 3-0 to the French giants, completing a humiliating 8-2 aggregate defeat. The defeat to Everton means Chelsea have conceded 12 goals in their last four games, while scoring only two. It is only the second time since the 1990s that they have lost four in a row.
The away end at Everton was virtually empty by the full-time whistle and Rosenior said post-match: "It's a disappointing time for the club at the moment [because of the last week]. It hurts to lose games of football. We're one point away from a Champions League position. Hopefully this break now comes at a good moment for us.
"This was the most disappointing evening so far. In terms of the things we spoke about, not gifting goals away, getting control of the game - it wasn't there. We arrived in the final third a lot. We had an edgy start and then managed to gain control of the game but we weren't clinical enough.
"Out of nowhere, they score - and that's not the first time that has happened. We came out in the second half, had control of the game and made a mistake and we were 2-0 down. For me, it's not a lack of effort or belief in the team. When you're on a run of defeats we're on, those things get levelled at you but I don't think that's the problem at the moment."
Rosenior accepted the blame for Chelsea's defensive frailties. He added: "When you watch the goal back, it's not a tactical thing. We didn't go man-for-man today. We played 4-4-2. It's a moment of switching off. I want to protect my players always, and I take responsibility in that lapse of concentration but that's happened too many times recently."
Everton ran further than Chelsea, who have been outrun in every single one of their Premier League matches so far this season. The Blues manager added: "I think through the season, if you look at the stats before me.... I don't want to make excuses - that was not good enough, the last week hasn't been good enough.
"The international break has come at a good time for us, some of the players maybe can have a reset, have a different environment and then come back."
Chelsea have now gone over 300 minutes without scoring a goal, since Enzo Fernandez made it 2-2 away at PSG in the 57th minute. Rosenior continued: "If you keep arriving and creating, you will take them. It's not for a lack of shots or final third entries. We need to be more clinical."
And Chelsea face a very difficult run of fixtures between now and the end of the season with Manchester City visiting Stamford Bridge next up, and Manchester United the visitors just six days later. A crunch clash with Liverpool at Anfield awaits in mid-May.