By Paul Green at Stamford Bridge
LIAM Rosenior believes the international break has come at a welcome moment for his out-of-sorts Chelsea side.
The Blues have crashed to four straight defeats in all competitions, the latest setback coming in Saturday’s 3-0 humbling at Everton hot on the heels of the midweek Champions League exit against Paris Saint Germain.
Chelsea won’t be in action again until Easter Saturday when they host League One minnows Port Vale in the FA Cup quarter-finals.
Under-fire Rosenior went to acknowledge the away fans at the final whistle on Merseyside, although many had long since departed once Iliman Ndiaye completed the scoring on 76 minutes following an earlier brace from Beto.
“They pay their money, they love this club and they’ve come a long way,” the SW6 boss said.
“It is a disappointing time for the club at the moment in terms of the way we lost in the Champions League and the way we’ve lost the last two [Premier League] games.
“[In] my job it hurts, regardless of the position, it hurts to lose games of football. In terms of moving forward, having this time [now] is to look at the bigger picture.
“We are one point away from the Champions League position.
“We need to keep working in this way, we need to keep giving the players as much confidence as possible and hopefully this break of games now for us comes at a really, really good moment.”
Despite trying to see the bigger picture, Rosenior also accepted what Chelsea produced on their first-ever visit to the Toffees’ brand-new Hill Dickinson Stadium was simply not acceptable.
He said: “It was the most disappointing evening so far in terms of what we’ve spoken about: not gifting goals away, making sure we are in the game, getting control of the game – it wasn’t there.
“And it turned into a really, really difficult evening where the result and performance was nowhere near what we expected of our team.”
Rosenior added: “We arrived into the final third a lot. We had an edgy start in terms of cheap giveaways that we gave away.
“Then we managed to gain control of the game and were in their half. We were arriving and creating moments, which we don’t take, we weren’t clinical enough.
“Then out of nowhere, it feels like out of nowhere, they score. And it’s not the first time that’s happened.
“And what happens in football if you are in a run with a difficult run of games against big teams, your energy levels and your confidence levels can drop if the other team scores first. That’s what happened.”
Chelsea responded well to going behind to Beto’s 33rd-minute opener and came close to going in level at the break when Enzo Fernandez’s volley was somehow kept out by Jordan Pickford.
But opposite number Robert Sanchez was at fault for Beto’s second in the 62nd minute, a goal which effectively ended the contest.
Rosenior said: “Pickford makes a world-class save at 1-0 and then we come out in the second half, have control of the game and then we make a mistake and they are 2-0 up.
“It gives them even more energy. It is about flow and momentum, and we didn’t have that in the game today.”
