Christensen looks for personal, collective improvement after Chelsea’s 4-2 loss to Arsenal

Chelsea’s poor form at home continued on Wednesday with a ridiculous 4-2 loss to Arsenal, and not even the 10,000 missing from the stadium due to government sanctions could lessen the blow and the frustrations of a third consecutive shocking defeat (in all competitions) at the Bridge.

The tone last night was set just twelve minutes in, when Andreas Christensen miscued a routine backpass and gifted a goal to Eddie Nketiah. Tuchel, at his wit’s end after the game, even blamed the pitch in an attempt to try to make sense of all this ridiculousness, but the reality is probably a lot more straightforward than that. It was simply yet another colossal mistake, the likes of which have littered many of our recent games, especially at home.

Christensen, who withdrew himself from contention at half time due to a supposed injury, took blame for the goal — obviously — though it was just the first of many unfortunate events that were to follow before the 90 minutes were out. (On a side note, has there ever been another center back who seems to get forced off with mid-game injuries more often then Christensen?)

“I take 100 per cent responsibility on my shoulders for the first goal, it was my mistake, but luckily for me we got back into the game quite quickly through Timo’s goal. We kept making mistakes though and it’s hard to keep bouncing back.

“I think we have to take a look at ourselves in the mirror because that performance wasn’t good enough and we know we can play a lot better than that. We can only blame ourselves for this result.

“We know we are better than this and for me personally, I know I can perform so much better than I what I showed. We need to pick our heads up and go again now.”

So that’s all well and good but words are just words and we’ve yet to see them turn into action at Stamford Bridge. In fact, our home record has been remarkably poor this season — while our away form is setting club records with eight consecutive wins, and counting.

The next chance to do better — well, for others in the team, probably not Andreas himself — comes this weekend with yet another London rival, West Ham United coming over to test our mettle. They’ve dropped five surprising points in their last two league games, and will be wanting to get back on track in their own quest to finish in the top-four as well.

“I can understand any frustrations because tonight we weren’t good enough and we know we have to do a lot better. We want to do this for the fans because we are all proud to play for this club.

“We have to go again and I’m sure the fans will be there again at the weekend to support us, which we need.

“We need to look at ourselves after this result and then move onto the next game. We want to finish third and win a trophy not just for ourselves, but for the fans as well because they are so passionate for this club.”

-Andreas Christensen; source: Chelsea FC

We all know we can do better, but can we do better?