Yahoo Sports Azpilicueta demands Chelsea standards improve to avoid a repeat of last season’s title challenge collapse
Cesar Azpilicueta warned his faltering Chelsea teammates not to repeat the mistakes of last season after their recent slump continued against Zenit on Wednesday night.
A 3-3 draw cost Thomas Tuchel’s side top spot in their Champions League group – meaning they qualified for the knockout stages as runner-up to Juventus.
It followed Saturday’s 3-2 defeat to West Ham, which saw them drop from first to third in the Premier League.
A run that has seen Chelsea win just three of their last seven in all competitions may bring back worrying memories of last season’s collapse around Christmas and New Year that ultimately cost Frank Lampard his job.
Azpilicueta admits standards have been allowed to dip and demands to see a reaction against Leeds on Saturday.
“It is true that in Chelsea, you don’t need a big number of defeats in a row to call it a bad period or a crisis,” he said. “It is part of this club’s ambition to go into every competition and compete at the top.
“Last season, in December, we were top of the group and [near the] top of the Premier League, and we had a very bad run of results.
“Every year is different. We have different people, different players and it is just that we need everybody to get that extra percent as individuals and as a team. At the moment we are making a lot of mistakes. We need to recover that high intensity, the solidity from the whole team to not concede chances.
“We have conceded too many and I think that the key for our success was to defend well, to not concede chances, to be ruthless in front of goal. We need to recover this.
“In football we are on the plane straight away and play again on Saturday. We have the chance to have a good game, a good performance from the first minute to the last, and hopefully we can get a result and from there build and not drop anymore points.”
Finishing second means Chelsea face a potential round of 16 tie against Bayern Munich or Real Madrid.
Azpilicueta added: “We know a draw is not good enough and to finish second is not where we want to be. We wanted to finish top of the group but we’re having a tough moment in the last couple of games where the performances haven’t been very good and the results are reflective of the performances.
“We have to have a reaction. We know there is still a lot to play, but we lost top spot in the Premier League and top spot in our Champions League group. So we have to face the reality and analyse ourselves.
“We are not at our top level and we have to have a reaction on Saturday. Hopefully, with our fans in this difficult moment we get the win, have a good performance from the first minute, and from there, start building our confidence because at the moment we’re making a lot of mistakes.”
Tuchel made eight changes for Wednesday night’s game – and Azpilicueta says the players did not take their chance to impress.
“We have to give our best,” he added. “For some of us it was a big opportunity as we were not playing lately so we had the chance to play for Chelsea in a Champions League game, to finish top of the table.
“Every time we go and step out on the pitch we have an amazing opportunity to show ourselves, to show that we are capable of helping the team and it hurts to concede a goal in the 94th minute.
“In the first-half we played good for 15 minutes, 1-0 up and we dropped [off]. It could have been 3-1, 4-1 before half-time. There were a few minutes where we completely lost the pace of the game and when we had a good reaction in the second-half we were leading with just three minutes to go. It hurts to concede three goals, which is not us.”
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