Chelsea: ‘If you don’t prepare right, you will pay’ – Blues concerns increase after loss

Chelsea may be through to the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League, but the boos that followed their surprise defeat by Legia Warsaw summed up the current mood of dissent at Stamford Bridge.

A 2-1 loss in the home second leg to the Polish side made little difference to the tie’s outcome as the Blues confirmed a last-four meeting with Djurgarden by way of a 4-2 aggregate success.

But the manner in which they succumbed to defeat, despite a strong starting line-up, left anger among the faithful in the stands as the players failed to rise to manager Enzo Maresca’s pre-match challenge to “engage” the fans.

It also prompted captain Reece James to front up afterwards and admit it was a “poor performance”, while appearing to question the preparation of his team for an encounter that was settled by Steve Kapuadi’s 53rd-minute winner after Blues left-back Marc Cucurella had cancelled out a penalty opener from Tomas Pekhart.

“We had a 3-0 lead, maybe that played a part in taking our foot off the gas,” said James, 25. “We are making progress but that was not progress. If anything it was a step back.

“Maybe we disrespected the competition. If you don’t prepare right, you will pay.

“It’s going to affect the mindset. It’s going to be in the back of people’s heads. I understand the frustration. Fans come to see excitement, we were frustrating to watch.”

Boss Maresca felt Chelsea “probably” did not respect Legia enough rather than the competition, and felt the Stamford Bridge “environment was good” as his side try to deal with increased pressure in the climax to the season.

“I didn’t see any bad moments from the fans,” added the Italian, whose side face a west London derby at Fulham on Sunday in their pursuit of a top-five Premier League place. “I already said after the last game we need to engage them, so it’s what we have to do.

“We are not happy with the defeat, probably after winning the first leg 3-0 we tried to manage things a little bit, tried to avoid injury, rotate players with an important game on Sunday.”