Jadon Sancho has revealed Enzo Maresca was particularly frustrated as his Chelsea side squandered two points at Crystal Palace.
The Blues conceded an 82nd-minute equaliser to Jean-Philippe Mateta in Saturday’s 1-1 draw and lost pace in the title race.
Chelsea had gone ahead courtesy of Cole Palmer but were unable to add to the opener and blew the opportunity of taking three points.
The Blues have now dropped five points across successive games to Ipswich and Palace and all but dropped out of the title hunt – much to Maresca’s frustration.
Frustration
Revealing Maresca’s frustration to BBC Radio 5 Live, Sancho said: “I thought we played quite well and controlled a lot of the game so it was very frustrating to concede late on.
“As the manager just said in the dressing room, we just have to kill off the game in the second half.
“I think if we got the second goal, we would have been more relaxed and they would have come out more and that would have created more space in behind for us.
“That didn’t happen unfortunately so we just have to learn from it and move on.”
Chelsea are now nine points adrift of leaders Liverpool, who have two games in hand, and appear to be out of contention for the title.
The Blues emerged as surprise contenders early in the season but have faded with a string of mixed results over the Christmas period.
The Blues still have a rather inexperienced side and are under a new head coach so a title challenge this season was unlikely to be sustained and they will already have an eye on competing next season.
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The Blues turn their attentions to the FA Cup next weekend where they will host Morecambe.
The game should represent a chance to rotate the squad with the Shrimps sitting 23rd in League Two, although they were victorious in their last outing – a 2-0 win over Tranmere.
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