Chelsea players have been accused of arguing among themselves on the bench during the defeat at Arsenal by Emmanuel Petit.
The West London outfit slumped to a sixth successive loss under the interim reign of Frank Lampard, with Chelsea's flaws on display for all to see. The Gunners made light work of their London rivals and were 3-0 up inside the opening 35 minutes after a brace from Martin Odegaard was followed by a close range strike from Gabriel Jesus.
Lampard was brought in to try and steady the ship following Graham Potter's dismissal back in April, but has instead overseen an even more miserable run of results that means Chelsea still aren't mathematically safe from relegation.
The Blues did slightly improve after the interval at the Emirates and Noni Madueke notched his first Chelsea goal to make the score-line more respectable.
However, Petit admitted he was concerned about the way the Chelsea players interacted with each other on the bench.
"I was quite close to the Chelsea bench and I saw some of the players having arguments between them in the second half especially. I was very shocked in the first half the attitude of the players, the body language, no response, no pride, no unity, no friendship.
"I was thinking you could put 20 managers on the bench and it won’t change anything at all at the moment. They need to clear something in the dressing room first and then think about the manager afterwards.
"You can put the best manager on the bench now and he doesn’t get the right answer, there are too many players. It’s a mess and it was embarrassing to watch Chelsea in the first half and I feel sorry for the fans."
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Though Petit's comments suggest there is a sense of ill-feeling between the Chelsea squad, boss Lampard has claimed his side were 'too nice' to their hosts, who in turn took full advantage.
"We weren’t good enough, we were too nice to play against, too passive," he blasted. "In possession we weren’t playing balls over their press, or winning second balls."
Lampard went on to admit that the club are operating well-below their usual standards but the problem is not a quick-fix.
"Chelsea have been a big success for 20 years domestically and in the Champions League, at the moment we’re not in that position. But from the moment I’ve been here it’s been evident we’re too nice as a team.
"We can’t change things overnight but we better get their quickly because we have another game at the weekend and games to come."
