Chelsea news: Antonio Conte lays into woeful result against Roma - It must be a one-off

ANTONIO CONTE laid into his woeful Chelsea side after this Champions League disaster – and then insisted it must be a one-off.

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte was not happy with the team's performance GETTY

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte was not happy with the team's performance

he Blues were torn apart by a Stephan El Shaarawy double and a stunner from Diego Perotti as Roma took command of Group C.

But Conte admits he side cannot afford to defend so badly again with Manchester United the visitors to Stamford Bridge this Sunday.

He said: “We must find the hunger we showed last season. When you lose 3-0, it means it wasn’t a good performance. Our first half was good, we created many chances to score, but to be 2-0 down was unfair.

“But in the second half, it was a really bad performance. Roma showed more will to fight and more desire to win the game.

“I’m very disappointed with our second half. For this performance, we all have to take responsibility.

“When you concede three goals, you must be worried. It means something doesn’t work. It’s very difficult now, but we have to analyse the game. We need to work on the tactical aspect.

We must find the hunger we showed last season

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte

“We are working less on this aspect this season. We have to look at ourselves. Tonight was a bad night for us. Just one night, I hope.

“Manchester United are a very good team but we have to find the strength to understand and to use this loss in the right way because we have to dig very deep this season if we want to fight for something.

“If we are not ready to dig deep we can have this type of game. This season will be very difficult if we don’t understand very quickly the right way to go.”

Stunned goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said: “We have to fight back on Sunday against Manchester United.

“Sometimes last season I had nothing to do in a game, sometimes I’d have one save to make. We have to react on Sunday as today was a bad image of ourselves.

“I thought we played well in the first half but in the second half we seemed to drop our fighting spirit and I don’t know what happened.

Moment Chelsea's Michy Batshuayi CRASHES into goal post

“It is hard to say what the problem is. This season every game is a hard game. We have to find that balance again. And keeping that mentality of not conceding goals and keeping clean sheets.”

Former Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard also slammed his old side in his new role as a BT Sport pundit.

He said: “It was the reaction of the players after half-time. Heads down, out of position and all over the place. It was disappointing all over.”

Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, also a BT pundit, added: “This sends alarm bells for the weekend. To go into that as a prelude is a disaster for them.”

Would you like to receive news notifications from Daily Express?