Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso admitted that his side lost control of the match against Brentford in Friday evening's 3-0 defeat, and he agreed with his player Levi Colwill that Chelsea were bullied at set pieces.
Brentford blitzed Chelsea with three second-half goals to seal a comfortable win, Jaidon Anthony, Igor Thiago and Fabio Carvalho all finding the net.
The result stretched Chelsea's poor run under Alonso to three Premier League games without a win, following defeat to Arsenal, a draw with Hull and now this loss to Brentford.
Alonso rounded on the way his team handled the game. "I think we lost the stability and the competitive mentality that we needed in the second half," he told the ESPN network.
"We know that the small details can be decisive," he added. "We should not give the opponent an advantage in matches like these. But it is about 95 minutes, and we were not able to maintain that level throughout the few matches we have played at the start of the season, and that is something we have to improve."
Colwill, meanwhile, told Sky Sports that Chelsea were bullied at set pieces.
"It was a tough match," he said. "Maybe we exposed ourselves too much when we were a goal down, so they took advantage of that and hit us on the counterattacks, and they are very good at that."
He continued: "We were not good enough in the second half. We have a lot of work to do during the international break. Perhaps we were bullied at times during set pieces, and we have to improve our performance in that aspect."
"We cannot rely on the attacking trio to get us out of dangerous situations, rather we must all help one another," he went on. "We still have plenty of room to develop."
His manager backed the captain's assessment. "It is not just about set pieces, it also includes the duels, the defensive side and the build-up play, as well as the moments in which we conceded the first goal," Alonso said. "Despite that, we were still in the match, but when you lose your organisation, you go out of control."
He concluded: "Understanding the match and knowing what it takes to compete until the end are a process that needs time. The players need time to grasp that and to feel it. And at the moment, we have not yet fully reached that feeling, so that we can compete throughout the entire match."
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