Lose and it’s over… Defeat to Manchester United would end Chelsea’s title hopes, admits Thibaut Courtois

Feeling Blue | Chelsea were stunned 3-0 by Roma on Tuesday night
Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images
Simon Johnson1 November 2017

Thibaut Courtois admits Chelsea's chances of retaining the Premier League trophy will be over if they lose to Manchester United on Sunday.

Chelsea go into the game low on confidence following a terrible 3-0 defeat to Roma in the Champions League at the Stadio Olimpico last night.

Antonio Conte's side were already under pressure to win against Manchester United, who are above them in the table, due to the form of runaway leaders Manchester City.

When asked by Standard Sport whether they can't afford to lose to Manchester United on Sunday if they are to stay in the title race, he replied: "Yes (that's right). This is a must-win game.

"Manchester City are already nine points ahead of us, Manchester United four and Tottenham one.

"We must win games like these to remain at the top and close to the other ones. We will try to get the three points and will give our lives for it on Sunday."

"Obviously it is different to last season. Injuries have been coming and not at a good time."

Thibaut Courtois

​Courtois confirmed that Conte will be holding an inquest into what went wrong against Roma back at the training ground on Wednesday.

Roma opened the scoring after just 38 seconds and Chelsea made sloppy defensive mistakes for all three goals.

Courtois added: "We will have a meeting and will look at the images of the game, to see what we did wrong and what we could have done better.

Photo: Getty Images
Getty Images

"We were 2-0 down at half-time and I don't think we deserved to be. We tried to fight at the beginning of the second half but after the third goal arrived, we lost a bit of spirit and mentality and maybe that is not a good image of ourselves.

"If we're down, we have to keep on fighting until the last minute. That has to change on Sunday.

"We will try to do our best to fight again and show the fans that this was just an off day and that we can continue.

"We have shown we have character like in the first match against Roma (3-3), against Watford (4-2 win), a good game in Bournemouth where we won 1-0 but it could have been 4-0. We have to play like that again."

It was expected that midfielder N'Golo Kante would be fit to face Roma after returning to training following a hamstring problem.

But Kante didn't even make the bench and suggested afterwards that he may not be back at the weekend either.

In Pictures | Roma vs Chelsea | 31/10/2017

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Chelsea have conceded 11 goals in the six matches the France midfielder has missed so far, with the win over Bournemouth providing the only clean sheet.

Courtois has suggested Chelsea need to get back to basics to solve their defensive issues.

He said: "I think we have to start again, maybe have the balance like last season, try to defend first and then look to score goals.

"In Bournemouth we had a good solid performance, but of course Bournemouth are not Roma. They gave us a tough game twice.

"This season we are conceding more chances than we did last year. We have to try to get that extra step in, that extra per cent to stop actions, not be 90 per cent. Maybe with a lot of games, sometimes you maybe go a bit less.

"Obviously it is different to last season. Injuries have been coming and not at a good time. We know how important N'Golo is for us, he is the guy that brings a lot of balance into the team. But we can't push him to play if he doesn't feel ready.

"Danny (Drinkwater) was also out for a long time as well. It means Tiemoue Bakayoko and Cesc Fabregas have played a lot of games in midfield and obviously that goes into their legs and it is harder for them to keep up the pressure, especially against the midfield three like Roma had last night."