Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea have won just four of their 10 Premier League outings in 2019.
The former Napoli boss has failed to deliver consistent performances in west London – leaving the club as underdogs in the pursuit to claim a Champions League place.
After the defeat to Everton, Sarri was asked why his side failed perform against Marco Silva’s team – and the Italian was quick to push the blame onto his players.
“The problem was mental on the pitch, so the system and the tactics are not important.” he said.
“It wasn’t about motivation because we started very well. We have to play eight matches now and we have to fight for our possibilities.
“I don’t know and the players don’t know what happened in the second half. I cannot explain it.
“We played the best first half in the season and we could have scored four or five and then suddenly we stopped playing.
“It’s very strange and we stopped to defend and counter attack.
“We were in control of the match and we played very well so we needed continue but we didn’t defend at the start of the second half.
“We changed the system but it was the same.”
Chelsea are now three points behind Arsenal – who are currently occupying the last Champions League qualification spot.
With eight games to go, the Blues may need to focus on the Europa League if they are to return to Europe’s premier competition.
Antonio Rudiger branded the defeat unacceptable, and urged his team-mates to work harder to ensure an improvement in results.
He said: ”It was the same against Wolves, but this time we lost.
“We were passive and that is dangerous in this league. We played well in the first half, but the way we approached the second half was unacceptable.
“Everyone deals with it differently but it’s unacceptable and I’m sorry. We still have eight games to go but we cannot always say ‘next week,’ we really have to do better because we normally aren’t allowed to lose this match.”
