Captain’s statement makes it clear where Chelsea’s manager failed his players on Saturday | OneFootball

Reece James has been speaking to the Chelsea official website about the brutal defeat to Aston Villa yesterday, and it was interesting to hear the captain’s thoughts on a number of the issues his team had faced.

The Blues were in total control for more than an hour, and had the lead when the full back’s cross was nudged in by Joao Pedro. But they lost all their momentum and ended up beaten by a team who looked totally lost for most of the game.

James blames Villa subs for turnaround

Cole Palmer is taken off for Estevao. (Photo by Steve Bardens/Getty Images)

“We knew they’d make substitutions and the shape changed slightly but it was nothing we shouldn’t have been able to deal with. We understand the style and the way they want to play. We have ourselves to blame.” the captain said.

“Many teams have spells in the season when they’re underperforming. We have to keep chipping away game by game. We are fighting every day, we want to get better.

“We have to put this game behind this and look forward because we have another game in a few days which we have to prepare right for, come back and win.”

What appeared to be crucial were the subs made by both teams after an hour. Villa got better with their triple change, while we got worse with ours.

The manager didn’t do enough to help his team tactically, and they didn’t do enough themselves to figure it out.

In other news…

James also noted how well his team had done for large periods of the game – sadly games are not 65 minutes, and if you don’t score the goals your performance warrants you’ll always get punished.

Speaking after the game, Moises Caicedo was quick to note that a lack of consistency was what was costing Chelsea in these games – he’s right, although we’re not sure what anyone is doing to fix it.