Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso has admitted that his players are hurt after suffering a narrow 2-1 defeat to London rivals Arsenal. He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and fans have been reacting.
Stressing that he never expects his players to be happy to lose, Alonso stated that he was very pleased to see the boys give everything on the pitch.
The Spaniard added that giving up control after Morgan Rogers’ early goal was a mistake that must be corrected ahead of the next game.
His words, “It hurts. It hurts because a defeat has to hurt. It has been a very intense game with different moments for everything.
We had chances to equalise. In the first half as well a couple of chances. Never happy if you lose. After we scored, there were 15-20 minutes where we had to defend too much and we were struggling a bit to get control.
We then had better spells with the ball. Overall, it was a very tight, very intense game. We could do better with the second goal to concede too early. The guys gave everything, tried everything. It has to hurt.
It’s about preparing the best possible way to compete the best possible way. You need to control the overloads on the right side. It’s part of the game to have these actions. We continue.
It’s game three and this is going to be a long, long ride. You take decisions, you make approaches. We want to be active and take initiative. Sometimes with set pieces, sometimes pressing high or lower. I think that’s what you need to compete in all the stages.
Today we’ve come here trying to compete as well as possible now we need to continue.
I learnt about the game, about us, about what we are doing, what we are starting.
The players have this attitude, this desire to compete better game by game to create something we believe in. So far I’m happy. We want to win games, this is the ultimate goal.”
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