Ben Chilwell has spoken for the first time since Chelsea’s 3-1 defeat against Arsenal at the Emirates on Tuesday.
He admitted that the club are “in a deep hole” after their disappointing campaign reached new depths against the Gunners on Tuesday night.
Chelsea were torn apart in the derby and have now suffered six consecutive defeats under Frank Lampard as interim manager.
It is difficult to see where their next win will come from, but Chilwell believes it is important to finish the season strongly ahead of the appointment of a new manager this summer.
“We’re in a deep hole at the moment,” said Chilwell. “To get ourselves out of it we need to stick together. There will be a lot of outside noise, but we need to stick together, train hard and, coming into games, show the effort the fans want to see.
“It’s pretty big going into next season. If we can get some results, show we’re a team and give the fans something to smile about, hopefully we can take that into pre-season.”
And Chilwell was involved in a clash with Enzo Fernandez and Thiago Silva after Arsenal’s second goal as Odegaard was left in acres of space to turn home.
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He added: “We’re hurt and angry, every negative emotion you could think of. It was very poor. We knew that if we came here and played like that we would have to expect to concede three goals.
“We weren’t getting tight to anyone, weren’t laying a hand on anyone. We were passive.
“A lot of the performances recently have been below the standard we set. The first half was another example of that. We have to look at ourselves.”