Ben Chilwell has admitted that Chelsea are “in a deep hole” after their nightmare season plummeted to new depths at Arsenal on Tuesday night.
Chelsea were torn apart at Emirates Stadium and have now suffered six successive defeats since Frank Lampard took over as interim manager.
It is hard to see where their next win will come from, but Chilwell says it is important to finish the season strongly ahead of the appointment of a new manager, expected to be Mauricio Pochettino, this summer.
“We’re in a deep hole at the moment,” said Chilwell. “To get ourselves out of it we need to stick together. There will be a lot of outside noise, but we need to stick together, train hard and, coming into games, show the effort the fans want to see.
“It’s pretty big going into next season. If we can get some results, show we’re a team and give the fans something to smile about, hopefully we can take that into pre-season.”
Pochettino remains locked in talks to become the new head coach, but Lampard will remain in charge for the final five matches of the season.
England international Chilwell added: “We’re hurt and angry, every negative emotion you could think of. It was very poor. We knew that if we came here and played like that we would have to expect to concede three goals.
“We weren’t getting tight to anyone, weren’t laying a hand on anyone. We were passive.
“A lot of the performances recently have been below the standard we set. The first half was another example of that. We have to look at ourselves.”