“No excuses”- Chelsea star takes accountability following Dortmund setback

Chelsea defender Ben Chilwell opens up on Borussia Dortmund defeat

As quoted by Football.London, Chelsea defender Ben Chilwell spoke after the 1-0 defeat to Borussia Dortmund and delivered his verdict on new signings settling down in the team.

Chelsea lost the first leg of the Champions League last-16 tie against Dortmund in a tightly-contested match. Karim Adeyemi’s fantastic solo run and goal was the difference between the teams on the night.

While the Blues created enough chances to take something back to Stamford Bridge for the second leg, the finishing was not on point. Joao Felix missed a few chances, while Kai Havertz was not at his best once again.

Here’s what Chilwell said on the disappointing part of the loss and his verdict on the new signings settling down (h/t Football.London):

“There are no excuses. We played well tonight but if we want to go far then we need to play even better. We have a lot of new players who we’re trying to integrate. Unfortunately, that takes time but we also don’t have time, but we’re trying our best to work hard and put that right.

“It is not ideal. We’d have loved to have won or taken the clean sheet. They took their chance, we didn’t take ours, that is what happens at this level.”

The issue of goal-scoring continues. Since the resumption of the season after the World Cup, Chelsea have scored six goals in 10 games in all competitions. Only in league terms, Erling Haaland has alone scored three more goals than Graham Potter’s men.

Those are not great readings for a team that is aiming to go deep in the Champions League and make inroads in the league table. Has Potter’s decision to not pick striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for the Champions League going to backfire? It seems so.

Even though Aubameyang hasn’t blossomed so far in a Chelsea shirt, he knows where the back of the net is. With so much quality in the creative department of this team, it would have been a matter of time before he started scoring bucketloads of goals.

More Chelsea News:

• Chelsea will do everything to sign Jude Bellingham in the coming summer
• William Gallas chastises Chelsea star Marc Cucurella who struggled against West Ham United
• Rafael van der Vaart asks Tottenham Hotspur to sign Chelsea star Hakim Ziyech

The Blues do not have that in their armoury in one competition now. We hope that Potter learns his lesson and brings the 33-year-old back into the side for the league games, starting from the home game against Southampton on Saturday.