Thomas Tuchel declared Chelsea must improve "as fast as possible" after claiming "it does not take a lot" to beat the Blues at present after their underwhelming Premier League start continued at Southampton.
Chelsea took the lead through Raheem Sterling on Tuesday, but goals from Romeo Lavia and Adam Armstrong turned the contest on its head as Southampton secured a 2-1 success.
Having been thrashed 3-0 by Leeds United on their last road trip, Chelsea have now suffered back-to-back away league defeats for the first time since December 2020.
Tuchel, meanwhile, has suffered consecutive league losses on the road for the first time since he was coaching Paris Saint-Germain in August 2019.
After Southampton moved level with the disjointed Blues in the early-season Premier League table, Tuchel was at a loss to explain their troubles.
"I don't know if concerned is the word, I absolutely dislike to lose and it's the second time in the season, very early," he told BT Sport.
"I think it does not take a lot to beat us. This is what I don't like. We are humble enough to understand that we can lose matches and of course, away matches.
"We don't like it and we try to win every match but the way we do this is something we need to understand as fast as possible and to change.
"It's difficult, I don't know why, we start well in all the games almost, and obviously we struggle with our focus and consistency in matches.
"It's not enough to play 20 minutes good, we did the same in Leeds. Then one thing goes against us, and we struggle to find answers and fight our way back if things don't go in our direction."
Meanwhile, Sterling has now scored each of Chelsea's last three goals, and while Tuchel is concerned by his team-mates' attacking struggles, he emphasised the importance of rediscovering their defensive composure.
"It is what it is and it's the reality. We played with four offensive players now many, many times," Tuchel said.
"I think in the first 20 minutes we created chances, half-chances but we struggled to score, which is also not brand new for us and does not necessarily need to have the consequence that you lose matches.
"You can also win 1-0 or 2-0 with a late goal, so no problem. But then you need to have a clean sheet, you need to be more focused.
"The amount of individual errors, the lack of concentration is simply too high at the moment to win football matches consistently. We can win, of course, but it's not consistent enough."
Chelsea were without Reece James due to illness and the injured N'Golo Kante on the south coast before sustaining another blow when Ruben Loftus-Cheek was withdrawn at half-time after suffering discomfort.
Tuchel was visibly frustrated with the injury woes that have hampered Chelsea as he added: "It's a hamstring injury, so the next midfielder is out and nobody is left.
"The recommendation for Mateo Kovacic was 20 minutes, we made 45 out of it. That's the situation.
"I also don't understand why we are in this situation regarding the injuries, and the injuries like all players in midfield. But that's the way it is, and we need to find solutions."
Dominic Calvert-Lewin determined to stay fit and build on Brentford strike
Dominic Calvert-Lewin is determined to stay fit after revealing his frustration at his latest injury setback.
The England striker returned from a fractured cheekbone to score Everton’s third goal in their 3-1 win at Brentford.
“It’s difficult when you keep getting sidelined and you’re doing everything to stay on the pitch, but I think everyone knows I’m doing everything I possibly can,” Calvert-Lewin told the club website.
“I’m in a good place now, feeling physically fit, strong, fast. I’m buzzing to get the goal and long may it continue.
“We knew we needed a result and most importantly a win but we have to continue the work we’ve been doing, keep the momentum and take that into next week.”
James Tarkowski had headed the Toffees back into the lead against his old club after Mathias Jensen cancelled out Abdoulaye Doucoure’s opener.
Calvert-Lewin then secured Everton’s first win of the season and condemned the Bees to a first home defeat.
“I think that Everton deserved to win,” said Bees boss Thomas Frank. “The first five games we played this season, we performed very well – this was a bad performance. We need to learn from that, move forward and bounce back.
“What this group of fantastic players have done very well over all the years I’ve been in charge here is that, after a bad performance, they’ve bounced back.
“Everything that Everton came with didn’t surprise us. We expected everything, we just handled it poorly. We just didn’t deal very well with it.
“There are two things, besides the bad performance, that we need to look into: one is defensive set-pieces, obviously we conceded two goals and we weren’t on top of them.
“Secondly, is our quality and decision-making on the ball, especially in the first half. We were throwing the ball away way, way too easy with touches, passes and decisions.”
Phil Foden admits Rodri will be a ‘big miss’ during his three-match suspension
Phil Foden admits Manchester City have a big hole to fill after influential midfielder Rodri picked up a three-game ban in Saturday’s win over Nottingham Forest.
The Spain international was sent off early in the second half of City’s 2-0 victory at the Etihad Stadium for raising his hands towards the neck of Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White.
The treble winners now face being without Rodri for their midweek Carabao Cup trip to Newcastle, next Saturday’s game at Wolves and – most crucially – the encounter at Arsenal on October 8.
Foden said: “He is one of our most important players and he seems to play all the minutes. He is going to be a big miss, but we have players to step up now and we are going to need them.”
Rodri’s dismissal dramatically changed the mood of a game City had been cruising to victory in following goals from Foden and Erling Haaland in the first 14 minutes.
A tame affair became fractious and City lost some of their composure before switching to a defensive mindset.
Attacking players Jeremy Doku and Julian Alvarez were sacrificed for Kalvin Phillips and Nathan Ake as manager Pep Guardiola took a pragmatic approach to secure three points.
“I thought we showed a different side to the team,” Foden said.
“It was not ideal with Rodri getting a red card so early in the second half, but I thought we showed heart and desire – a different side to the team that we sometimes need to show.
“I am really happy with the performance. We dug deep.”
Despite making their latest victory unnecessarily complicated, the champions’ 100 per cent start to the season remains intact.
In an ominous warning for the rest of the competition, Foden believes there is plenty more to come.
The 23-year-old said: “I would say it is a perfect start, but there are still a couple of gears for us to go. We are happy with the start, but we still know we can get better.”
Forest manager Steve Cooper was pleased with his side’s response in the second half and felt they should have got more from playing against 10-man City.
He said: “When you play a game and you get presented an opportunity, you really want to recognise that you have to take that.
“I’m not angry with the players. I’m not disappointed in any way, shape or form, and I’ve told them that.
“But I’ve just challenged them, like, ‘Come on boys, really back yourselves, because I do’.
“Hopefully we’ll reflect on the game and be motivated that we can play in these really tough games and do some good things.”
Mauricio Pochettino believes PSG stint stood him in good stead for Chelsea job
Mauricio Pochettino thinks the 18 months he spent in charge of Paris St Germain kitted him out to tackle the complicated task of turning Chelsea’s fortunes around.
Under the Argentinian, PSG were crowned Ligue 1 champions in 2022 having missed out to Lille the previous campaign after he had replaced the sacked Thomas Tuchel mid-season.
Crucially he failed to land the club’s Qatari owners the prize they most coveted, the Champions League, losing in the semi-final to Manchester City in 2021 and to Real Madrid in the last-16 the following year.
It was reported that Pochettino never felt that he enjoyed full authority over the club’s star-studded squad, and was kept by the hierarchy from reining in the erratic behaviour of certain big-name players.
He left in the summer of 2022 and did not work in football again until accepting the job of piecing together Chelsea owner Todd Boehly’s expensively assembled side in June.
He said the experience of managing in the famously chaotic environment of the French champions helped him as a coach, but acknowledged that the challenge he faces at Stamford Bridge is of a different order.
“I think it helps,” said Pochettino. “It helps to take things in a different way. Of course, experience is a really important point in football, in how you are going to deal with things.
“It would be arrogant to say that because I was there, now I can manage everything. The demands always are completely different.
“But when you add experience and experience of different clubs, different countries, different cultures, I think it gives us the capacity as a coaching staff to help in a better way the players and then the club that wants to develop some new ideas or new projects, like we are now doing.”
Chelsea face Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on Sunday when Pochettino will come up against another coach who knows intimately the unique demands of life at PSG, Unai Emery.
Emery managed the club for two seasons between 2016-18, winning the title in his second year but joining the list of coaches unable to fulfil the club’s frustrated Champions League ambitions, twice going out in the last 16.
He returned Villa to Europe for the first time in 12 years last season, finishing seventh in the Premier League after taking over from Steven Gerrard in October.
“For myself and for Unai, (the job) is not to prove anything,” said Pochettino. “I think it is to try to help (our) clubs to achieve what the clubs want. I never feel that I need to prove something.
“We (Pochettino and assistant Jesus Perez) arrived at PSG and in one year and a half we won three (trophies). We proved that we can win.
“But you can win with a team that normally wins when you are in a project ready to win. In that case, Unai and myself are building something. He is building at Aston Villa a very nice project, and we are starting to build a very good project for the long-term at Chelsea.
“I think it’s not easy to win with PSG, it’s not easy to win with different clubs. We need to give the credit for the coaches and players that win with different teams, because for different reasons, you feel the pressure in a club like PSG. You cannot (have) any excuses.
“But the Premier League is the most important competition and the most competitive, and if you can win here, I think the feeling for sure that the credit is bigger.”
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