OH BOY, THAT WAS BAD

CHELSEA captain Conor Gallagher has apologised to Blues fans for the 5-0 humiliation at Arsenal and admitted there was no excuse for their dire display. Conor feeling Blue after battering

Head coach Mauricio Pochettino tried to deflect criticism from his young squad onto the club’s transfer policy.

But even the Blues boss admitted his players were “so soft” and “gave up” after the third goal, as Chelsea fell 30 points behind top spot.

TV cameras showed a young Chelsea fan holding up a sign which read, “I don’t want your shirt, I want you to want to fight for ours”. And a crestfallen Gallagher admitted the players must heed that message after they were dismantled by the title-chasing Gunners.

“We are really upset and disappointed,” said Gallagher. “It was nowhere near good enough. We just want to say sorry to our fans who came to watch.

“We can’t make any excuses or blame anything. We just have to look at ourselves as individuals and as a team. We know we can be better than that. We might be tired but that’s still not an excuse.

“We started too slow. There were too many mistakes, it was too lethargic as a collective and we weren’t at it. We have only got ourselves to look at and there is work to be done.”

Pochettino has reached the Carabao Cup final and lost in the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday in his first season at Stamford Bridge. But they sit ninth in the Premier League after conceding 57 goals in 32 games.

The Argentinian signed a two-year contract last July, with a club option of a further year, and he is safe for now even with Jose Mourinho available. But he cannot afford more performances like this if he wants to stay in the job next season.

After bemoaning the inconsistency of his side, Pochettino said: “I am not going to blame the players. The circumstances are bigger than the performance of the players.”

The former Spurs boss has called for more experience in his side, although spending rules will make yet more splashing out difficult in the summer.

“The strategy for the future should be better, and in our analysis we should try to be very clinical in our decisions to help us not to be in this situation in the future,” warned the Chelsea boss.