CHELSEA star Antonio Rudiger has slammed his ‘stupid’ team-mates after a shock loss to Leicester at Stamford Bridge.
Maurizio Sarri is facing his first tough period in charge of the Blues after suffering defeat to the Foxes.
After a first-half of consistent pressure on the Leicester defence, Jamie Vardy opened the scoring after fine work from James Maddison.
And Chelsea had no reply, with their only notable chance afterwards falling to Marcos Alonso, who struck the woodwork.
It is their second loss this month after coming up short to Wolves two-and-a-half weeks ago.
The Blues are now in a precarious position in the top four, with Arsenal beating Burnley to draw level with them on points.
And German defender Rudiger has torn into his team-mates, stating that any chance of winning the Premier League is now over.
He said: “It is a disaster. We do not talk about the title anymore.
“If we cannot win these games, we cannot compete.
“We only talk about the top four now.
“Maybe it is a lack of mentality, stupid.”
Sarri also questioned his players and their mentality, claiming that the reaction to the goal was shocking.
“We played well for 55 minutes,” Sarri said.
“I think that, of course, in some situations we were unlucky but I think that we could have done something better.
“After the goal the reaction was not the right reaction. We reacted a little shocked and with mental confusion.
“We had to only keep playing like we did before the goal, there was time to recover.”
Chelsea must bounce back quickly from this latest setback as they face Watford on Boxing Day at Vicarage Road.