Ricardo Carvalho believes Chelsea must tighten up defensively if they are to challenge for the title.
Chelsea defender unhappy at United defeat
Ricardo Carvalho believes Chelsea must tighten up defensively if they are to challenge for the Premier League title this season.
The Blues suffered a demoralising 3-0 defeat at the hands of champions Manchester United on Sunday with an abject performance at Old Trafford.
John Terry returned to Luiz Felipe Scolari's backline after a three-game suspension but the England captain was unable to successfully marshall his troops.
Nemanja Vidic headed United into the lead from a corner on the stroke of half time before further close-range goals from Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov sealed the victory.
Mistake
Carvalho claims individual errors are proving costly to Chelsea's season, with their next test coming in Wednesday night's FA Cup third round replay at Southend.
The Portugal international told
Chelsea TV: "We have to mark our men and this time we didn't mark our men, and goal after goal it is getting worse for us.
"Our mistake was the corner and we conceded a goal in the last minute of the first half.
"After that it was difficult to react, we tried but the second goal killed us."
Mikel
Midfielder John Obi Mikel has issued a rallying call ahead of the cup clash with the Shrimpers.
"We are football players, top football players, and no one likes losing," he said.
"You get things going wrong like this and it depends how we get on with it and try to fix everything right now.
"In this time we have to show our strong character, remain as a family and get things right."
Mikel told the club's
official website: "It helps to have a game so soon, it is a good game to go out and make sure we win."
