The Blues were the better team before the interval, but the Bees took charge in the second period and broke the deadlock through Jaidon Anthony on the hour.

We tried to muster a response, yet our hosts made sure of the result with two late goals, leaving Alonso to reflect on a second defeat so far this season.

‘I’m disappointed at the end with the second half and the result,’ he said. ‘This is not enough to compete in the Premier League, not to be able to go for the 90 minutes. This is why today we were punished.

‘At the moment, we are not being consistent enough to compete during the whole game – 45 [minutes] is not enough, you need to play the whole game knowing each detail is important and each action can be decisive.

‘We dropped our consistency, and our competitive mentality needed in the second half. It's about 95 minutes, and we have not been able to keep that level throughout these few games in the start of the season. It's something that we'll have to do better.’

Alonso had to make do without his captain, Reece James, and arguably our top performer so far this season, Joao Pedro. Both were ruled out because of injury.

But our manager was at pains to not use the duo’s absence to explain away the result at the Gtech Community Stadium.

‘It’s not about talking or looking for excuses,’ said Alonso. ‘We need to look at each other and know we have to work and improve.

'There is still a long way to go, but we have to check many things.’