Every word Calum McFarlane said on ‘unacceptable’ Chelsea, Jesse Derry latest, double injury blow

The full transcript from Calum McFarlane’s post-match press conference after Chelsea’s 3-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea interim head coach Calum McFarlane has just finished taking questions in his post-match press conference after his side were beaten 3-1 at the hands of Nottingham Forest.

A chorus of boos reverberated around Stamford Bridge at full time as the Blues were beaten for the sixth time on the bounce in the Premier League. Two goals from Taiwo Awoniyi and one from Igor Jesus meant Joao Pedro’s Goal of the Season contender was merely a consolation.

McFarlane has just offered his thoughts on the defeat. Here is every word McFarlane had to say:

FOLLOW OUR CHELSEA FB PAGE! Latest Blues news, analysis and much more via our dedicated Facebook page

What are your feelings on that?

Yeah, really disappointed with the performance, disappointed with the result. Irrelevant of that, I don’t think we ever got to our level today that we know we’re capable of. So yeah, naturally very disappointing.

Do you think the players have the drive and motivation in the race to qualify for the Conference League/Europa League?

Yeah, I know the group, I’ve known them for a little while now and they are driven, they want what’s best for themselves, they want what’s best for this club and we’re going to do everything we can to try and win every single game we can from now to the end of the season.

We’ve seen the update on Jesse Derry. What did you make of his performance up until he came off?

I think there are more important things than that right now. We’re hearing positive signs from Jesse and Rob (Sanchez) and I hope the Nottingham Forest players are okay as well. But yeah, I’m pleased for Jesse’s performance. I thought he performed well while he was on the pitch, but there’s probably more important things to think about right now.

Vitor Pereira said his changes were more about the spirit than any sort of tactics. What do you make of that?

Yeah, I thought the first 15 minutes we were nowhere near the level we needed to be. I thought the early goal was a bit of a sucker punch and we didn’t seem to really recover from that moment. It was a 3v1 at the back post. We know that they like to cross to the back post. We know that the No.9 likes to peel to the back post and we should defend that moment better. It’s really disappointing. I thought we defended that moment really well vs Leeds at Wembley and I just don’t think we recovered from that moment well enough. When we did recover and we had moments, Enzo hits the post, Cole misses a penalty, Joao’s offside goal. When you start that badly, you need those moments to go your way, to give you a chance to fight back into the game. But ultimately, the first 15 minutes was not acceptable.

How can you explain that performance level from Chelsea?

Like I said previously, I think the first 15 minutes was unacceptable. The manner in which the two goals were conceded has really set us back. It gave ourselves a mountain to climb. You can’t do that at this level, especially against a team that’s fighting for their life. That was pretty much, for me, something that we need to address and improve.

How do you explain six league defeats in a row?

Yes, it’s a ruthless game. It’s a really high level.

You cannot start games the way we did in the Premier League against a team of Forest’s quality. All we can focus on right now and all I can focus on right now is we’re in tomorrow, we’re training tomorrow, we’ll review the game, we’ll try and find the reason why and try and make sure that the performance level is of a higher level against Liverpool in five days’ time. I’m not looking at the bigger picture, the why, it’s about right now and attacking the moment right now.

Alejandro Garnacho and Pedro Neto injured?

They took knocks, yes. Knocks in training yesterday.