Maurizio Sarri admitted he is worried about his Chelsea team's "mentality" after they fell to a 2-0 defeat at Everton that severely damages their hopes of a top-four finish in the Premier League.
Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson, converting his own saved penalty, scored the second-half goals at Goodison Park on Sunday that halted Chelsea's recent league improvements and marked Everton's first win over 'Big Six' opposition in 26 games, a run dating back to January 2017.
But the goals followed a first half of utter Chelsea domination in which they somehow failed to beat Everton's England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and the subsequent collapse has clearly concerned the London club's manager.
"I'm worried about our mentality," said Sarri. "I think the situation is clear. "We played probably the best 45 minutes of the season then, suddenly, at the beginning of the second half, we stopped playing. I don't know why." The Italian added: "We played really very well until the last minute of the first half and then suddenly very badly in the first minute of the second half.
"It's very difficult for players to explain to me the change. Very difficult for me to explain to you the change, probably it is a mental block I think."
- 'Big limit' -
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"Today was really, really important for us so now we have one less opportunity but I think we have to fight to defend those opportunities."