Head coach Graham Potter has suggested that he remains unhappy with the cohesiveness in his Chelsea defence.
On Saturday evening, the Blues succumbed to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Aston Villa with Ollie Watkins and John McGinn scoring a goal in either half.
The headline statistic from the match was the shots on goal, with Chelsea having 27 attempts in comparison to Villa's five.
Despite their recent improvements in the final third, the West Londoners have generally struggled in that area of the pitch, only netting 29 times in 28 top-flight fixtures.
Nevertheless, Chelsea have also been inconsistent in defence, and Villa's first goal at Stamford Bridge came as a mix-up between Kalidou Koulibaly and Marc Cucurella.
Potter only named one recognised centre-back in his back three, explaining the selections of Reece James and Cucurella as attack-minded.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference, as quoted by football.london, Potter said: "Well, we wanted to attack, we wanted to use Marc and Reece as two laterals, that's where the space would be and they can construct attacks well.
"I thought we got some good opportunities from an attacking perspective, won the ball back, high as well. I think we had a 1 v 1 with Mischa a couple of times. It's an error for the first goal and whenever there's an error there's always something you can do better."
When asked to expand on Chelsea's performance in defence, Potter indicated that he had more concerns about that area of the pitch over their lack of a ruthless streak in front of goal.
The Englishman added: "That's the thing we need to look at I think. Even though we had some opportunities ourselves and attacked well ourselves, we gave up too many opportunities. The one with Watkins is the one that sticks to mind.
"Apart from that, not too much. At the same time, that is too big a chance for us, we need to do better there and that's on me and I have to take that responsibility."
Chelsea remain 11 points adrift of the top four in the Premier League table, with Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United still to play this weekend.
Potter's team are next in action when they play host to Liverpool, who are four points ahead in eighth, on Tuesday night. body check tags ::
