Alonso critical of Chelsea defending after defeat at Sunderland
Xabi Alonso was critical of Chelsea’s defending and admitted they did not deserve to win after their 1-0 defeat at Sunderland.
Enzo Le Fée’s 36th-minute penalty settled the game at the Stadium of Light after Levi Colwill hauled down Brian Brobbey in the box.
“Not happy with how we defended that situation,” the Chelsea boss said.
“Something that we could avoid, something that we had worked on during the week, and from that action to give a penalty is not good from us.”
Chelsea had more of the ball but created little against a deep-lying Sunderland side, with Danny Welbeck’s stoppage-time header over the bar their best chance.
“I think that we didn’t deserve more than probably one point. The game was really close. Not much happened, to be honest, just that action,” Alonso said.
“We didn’t produce enough to deserve to win. We were against the low block. We missed a bit of patience, a little bit of quality, creativity in the last third to create more chances.”
Asked whether his side had been bullied, Alonso replied: “No, not bullied. There were situations that we could have defended better, situations where we could have got better advantages in attack, but the game was really, really even, really competitive.
“They were waiting for the chance and they got it. We were trying but we were not producing much.”
Brobbey caused Chelsea problems throughout the first half before winning the penalty.
“From transition, out of almost nothing, he got a couple of chances, he got the penalty as well,” Alonso said. “We have tried but we could have done better.”
Colwill, booked for the foul on Brobbey, was replaced by Estevao at half-time.
“There was the risk with a yellow card as well. We didn’t want to take risk,” Alonso explained.
