Marc Cucurella has urged Chelsea to develop a killer instinct following their failure to finish off Sunderland in a damaging 2-1 defeat.
Enzo Maresca’s team have now squandered eight points from winning positions already this season.
The latest collapse occurred at Stamford Bridge when Chemsdine Talbi snatched a stoppage-time winner for Sunderland.
Chelsea had taken an early lead through Alejandro Garnacho’s fourth-minute strike.
The Black Cats equalised in the 22nd minute through Wilson Isidor despite Chelsea’s dominance in possession.
The west London club delivered another toothless display in a growing list of frustrating performances.
Chelsea are now languishing in mid-table in the Premier League after their four-game winning run ended.
The team had hoped to build on last season’s momentum which included Champions League qualification and two cup wins.
Left-back Cucurella conceded his team must improve by finding a more ruthless edge in matches.
“It’s a really tough one to take,” Cucurella told Chelsea’s official website.
“I think we need to learn to manage the game better.”
“We scored early, dominated at that stage but then we let the opponents back into it.”
“We need to learn to kill games off when we are on top.”
The Spaniard emphasised the need to improve against teams like Sunderland who employ defensive game-plans.
Chelsea were undone for the second time this season by a long throw-in leading to a goal.
Nordi Mukiele’s launch into the six-yard box created havoc for Isidor to poke home the equaliser.
“We know that a lot of teams are trying to use long throws more and we need to manage them better,” Cucurella added.
“We worked on them yesterday because we knew Sunderland will look to use long throws and be direct from set-pieces.”
“I think maybe we relaxed a little bit and they punished us.”
“It’s no excuse. We need to learn from this and make sure this doesn’t happen again.” – AFP
