How is Cesar Azpilicueta, what is the latest with him?
“He is in hospital, so he’s in the best place. He is conscious and speaking to his wife, so that is good. We’re obviously very concerned, especially when it first happened. Hopefully, he is in the best place and we keep monitoring.”
Was he unconscious at any time?
“I think he was so we have to take all the precautions we need to take and make sure he’s ok. It was worrying, a horrible incident.”
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On the football side, did this feel like a step back after Borussia Dortmund?
“I think it was, certainly in the first half, it was a below-par performance. Returning from the Champions League and we had to make some changes, so you lose a bit of fluidity and cohesion. Southampton set up with a plan, an idea. They mixed the game well with a big target man but our performance wasn’t what we wanted in the first half and I take as much responsibility as anybody in that.
"I thought the response second half was good and I thought we deserved a goal, we created enough chances to score. But when you don’t, then obviously it’s difficult to win matches.”
You took off David Datro Fofana at half time, what was the thinking?
“To use Raheem [Sterling] really. We wanted to use Raheem in the wide areas and that was the decision. It was a tricky one for David – I thought he had one really good action - and it wasn’t a reflection on him. It was more tactical to use Raheem”
No Reece James, Thiago Silva, Marc Cucurella, Hakim Ziyech and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, was that down to injuries?
“No injuries. More just the turnaround and demand of the games considering a few of them had injuries previously. With Reece, two 90s in a row, which is more than we expected at the start of the week. It was a case of managing the load and managing the squad.”
Chelsea supporters were very vocal in their criticism after today, how do you respond to that?
“After a 1-0 defeat at home, any criticism you get is understandable. I think we’ve had a tough period and I think we’ve had lots of challenges in terms of integrating young players into the Premier League. While results don’t go your way it can be tough, that is how it is.
"I’m sure there will be people out there that think I’m the problem, absolutely. I don’t think they’re right but I’m not arrogant enough to say their opinion isn’t worth articulating. My job is to help the team, keep working through a team period, we’ve had to make some changes today and the truth is we took a step back in our performance in the first half. The response in the second half was good, but it wasn’t good enough.”
When you’re missing chances, people might be wondering why you don’t have Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the bench. What is it he’s not doing to be involved?
“I would say keep doing what he’s doing. We made the decision to give David the opportunity and we still had Kai [Havertz] and Raheem coming on and I think they impacted the game well. But obviously, when you don’t score and have created chances, I understand the question.”
You were late to come in for today’s press conference, has there been a big inquest in the dressing room?
“There is no conspiracy, I can’t give you that. There is a lot of media and I believe my colleague has done the media before me. I always come in and speak to you guys, understand the questions, and when we’ve lost 1-0 at home to Southampton, with the greatest respect to the, it is good enough because of the results we’ve had recently.
"The first half is as much my responsibility as anybody’s because the performance wasn’t good. I thought the second-half performance was better and we deserved to score. If we do that, the game changes around. But 1-0 isn’t good and we’re disappointed with that.”
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