Dan Gosling’s late strike, awarded by VAR, consigned us to defeat yesterday, and our Spanish defender says the Blues must react quickly ahead of a huge London derby with Tottenham.

‘We didn’t find a way to break down their defence,’ conceded the skipper. ‘In moments we didn’t move the ball quick enough, we didn’t take the chances that we did have.

‘Then we didn’t deal with the second ball from a set-play and we lose the game. Recently at home we’ve been finding it difficult.

‘We’ve had a couple of bad results at home now and we didn’t find a way to break their defence down. We have to find a way to score goals and there are a couple of things that we must improve on.

‘We have to keep our heads up. The Christmas period is always a busy time and we have some important fixtures coming up, which we have to be ready for.'

Looking at recent home form overall, Azpilicueta added:

'We are facing teams with a defensive set up who are counter-attack teams, and sometimes we have conceded counter-attacks or from set-plays, and in set-plays every team has the same chance. We have to be more effective. That is the problem we have had in a few games, in either box we were not good enough attacking and defending.

'We have to make sure we are ready, because there is a big game coming up, a derby against Tottenham next Sunday and we have to be ready for it. Now is time to think, to see what we didn’t do well, and go with everything on Sunday because we need the points.'