Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has insisted that he was satisfied with large parts of his side's performance during the 2-0 defeat to Newcastle United in the EFL Cup fourth round.
The Blues went into the contest at St James' Park having recorded a hard-earned 2-1 victory over the Magpies in the Premier League three days earlier.
As expected, Maresca took the decision to make 11 changes to his starting lineup, leaving the likes of Cole Palmer on the substitutes' bench.
However, Chelsea failed to offer a sustained threat against their top-flight rivals and found themselves two goals down by the 26th minute courtesy of an Alexander Isak strike and an Axel Disasi own goal.
While Chelsea continued to have the majority of possession and had 17 shots on goal, just four were on target as they deservedly bowed out of the competition.
'We lost control'
Speaking to reporters after the match, Maresca insisted that he had little reason to be discouraged by the majority of the game, claiming that a small period 'without control' cost the visitors.
The Italian said, as quoted by football.london: "I think it worked (tactics) if we analyse the performance. If we analyse the result, it didn't work. But I think for 22 or 23 minutes, until their goal, we were in control of the game, we didn't concede nothing.
"But then after the goal, we lost the control for 10 minutes and then conceded the second one. In the last 10 minutes of the first half, we had two or three clear chances that unfortunately we didn't score.
"In the second half, we were in control of the game. The most important thing, as we always say, is the result but the performance, we lost the game because of 10 minutes after the first goal and then for the rest, we were quite good."
He added: "Probably the first goal is one that we can avoid because we knew that playing through the middle, they are quite aggressive, so the solution is to go outside but it can happen.
"I didn't see a big difference between tonight and two (three) days ago."
What next for Chelsea?
Chelsea will be on their travels yet again later this week as they square off against Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday.
That high-profile tussle is followed by a Conference League fixture at home to FC Noah, before Arsenal are the visitors to Stamford Bridge on November 10.
