The Blues were punished on the counter for giving away possession in dangerous areas, as Cole Palmer's opener was wiped out before half-time to inflict a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Wolverhampton Wanderers, with Thiago Silva's late goal proving little consolation on a difficult day at Stamford Bridge.

Mauricio Pochettino believes the nerves and the tension of the game got to his players, making it a difficult match to control, and issued an apology to the supporters for the performance and the result.

'When we scored we hadn’t started the game badly, but when we conceded the first goal we suffered with the impact, started to feel nervous and we didn’t manage the stress,' said Pochettino. 'When we conceded two own goals from deflections, it was difficult to manage the team, the stress, and the energy dropped.

'We went to half-time and then in the second half we had some chances to score to make it 2-2, but then we conceded a third goal and it was really tough. The feeling on the pitch was difficult for the players to deal with and to manage the situation.

'I am so disappointed, we need to change this feeling, and I apologise to the fans. I say thank you to the fans who kept going to the end helping the team and supporting the team.

'The main problem was that we felt the pressure and the stress to win, to play well, to perform. We didn’t have time when Palmer scored to build our momentum in the game and to dominate and play easy and feel confident.

'The feeling after Liverpool was affecting the team so much. The easy things when we play in the build-up with possession became difficult and it was easy for them to counter our game with their energy.'

Moving forward, our head coach insists the most important thing is for him, his coaching staff and the players to all take responsibility for the situation, work hard to find solutions and make sure we all stick together, on the pitch, in the dugout and in the stands.

'I am the first one responsible for this situation, and on what we showed today we are not got enough,' he conceded. 'We didn’t manage the situation properly and of course no-one can be safe. We are all responsible, but also the players. The players need to take responsibility like I do.

'At the moment we are not matching the history of the club and we need to accept that. We need to be critical but we cannot give up. Of course we are going to keep working really hard to try to change the results. If it is not working in this way maybe we need to move on and try to find different solutions.

'What we can say is we apologise to the fans. The most important thing we can do now is to feel the responsibility. To understand the fans is really important and we want to apologise and say sorry.

'We are disappointed like them but until the end we need to fight all together. Of course we want to take good results in the future and we need to stay all together. During the 90 minutes we need to fight all together to get the result and then at the end they will be right to criticise and to be angry if the performance is not good.

'But also a young team needs support and I need to say thank you because the fans were supporting until the end, but at the end they are entitled to behave like they feel.'