Liam Rosenior takes responsibility for Chelsea mistakes and admits players have their 'heads down' after Everton loss

Chelsea lost again on Saturday in a game which saw Robert Sanchez make another blunder to gift Beto his second goal of the game. Iliman Ndiaye then capped a deserved win with a fine strike that sees the Toffees now just two points behind Chelsea in the Premier League table. Rosenior defended his goalkeeper after the match, telling Sky Sports: "I think it’s so difficult after the game to speak about an individual performance. Rob is a top goalkeeper and goalkeepers have days like this. Pickford makes a world class save to keep it 1-0. For me it’s not a time for talking, it’s the time for me and my staff to analyse. The players will go away with the respective countries and when we come back we will have a few clear weeks for some time to work with the players for the first time."

Asked about Chelsea's defensive mistakes during the game, Rosenior added: "Yeah, 100 percent the accountability and the responsibility ends with me. We played in a different way, we dropped the team a little bit deeper today in a 4-4-2 shape. I thought we were comfortable in the game.

“The first goal we gave away, we were the most comfortable, and the difference again is in both boxes were that they were clinical. The third goal from Ndiaye was a fantastic finish. We had chances, especially in the first half but if you don’t take them you’re going to end up losing games of football.”

“Yeah goals give you energy, and at the moment we are gifting goals away. We gifted two poor goals. We started edgy, and then the first 10, 15 minutes a few cheap give aways and then we played our way into the game and it seems to be happening every week. 

"What that does is the crowd gives energy to the opposition and then their confident goes up. In the end Everton deserved the victory and that is something we need to improve very very quickly.”

The result leaves Chelsea outside of the Champions League spots in sixth place in the Premier League, but Rosenior is confident they can secure qualification to next season's tournament. He added: "We are a point away from the Champions League. I’m learning about this club, there has been a lot of noise, negative noise, and rightly so about our performances last week. We have had 10 games in the league together as a group, and we have 17 points. I think we are fourth in my time. Forget the noise, we have to keep our calm and our composure. An international break has probably come at a good time for us to restart and go again for a really good run in.”

Chelsea's only chance of silverware this season now lies in the FA Cup, with the Blues set to take on League One side Port Vale in the quarter-finals of the competition after the international break.