Football: ‘Chelsea stars must take blame’

LONDON: Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic admits his side have only themselves to blame for their spluttering form as they bid to avoid an FA Cup embarrassment in today’s fourth- round replay against Brentford.

Rafael Benitez’s team were below their best again in an unconvincing 1-0 win at Sparta Prague in the Europa League on Thursday and the lacklustre display only added to the impression that the Blues are painfully out of sorts.

Serbia international Ivanovic acknowledges that Chelsea’s lack of consistency over the course of the campaign is a worrying trend which must be addressed.

“We have been up and down this season,” said Ivanovic. “We have to look at ourselves and our performances. Since now we have time, we have to recover and play our games with a better performance.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th, 2013.