Antonio Rudiger slams Chelsea team-mates for ‘unacceptable’ Everton defeat

Antonio Rudiger was furious with his Chelsea team-mates for the performance against Everton and branded their second-half display as ‘unacceptable’.

The Germany centre-half was part of the side that went down 2-0 to Marco Silva’s men after goals from Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson, leaving Chelsea three points off Arsenal in the race to finish inside the top four.

After putting in a solid first-half performance, Chelsea went off the boil after the break – something that confused manager Maurizio Sarri.

But Rudiger was less diplomatic than his boss and took aim at his club-mates for the manner of the defeat. ‘It was the same against Wolves, but this time we lost,’ Rudiger fumed.

‘We played a good first half but we didn’t score. It is unacceptable the way we came out [after the break] and we lost the game in 10 minutes. ‘We were passive and that is dangerous in this league.

We played well in the first half, but the way we approached the second half was unacceptable. ‘Everyone deals with it differently but it’s unacceptable and I’m sorry.

‘We still have eight games to go but we cannot always say ‘next week,’ we really have to do better because we normally aren’t allowed to lose this match.’