Marc Cucurella reveals Chelsea training plan didn't work vs Sunderland

Marc Cucurella has revealed Chelsea were punished by Sunderland in areas they worked on in preparation for the Premier League clash.

Despite taking an early lead in the fourth minute through Alejandro Garnacho, Chelsea failed to push on and Sunderland completed the comeback to seal a 2-1 win to stun the Blues at Stamford Bridge in stoppage time.

Wilson Isidor levelled 18 minutes after Chelsea took the lead, with Chemsdine Talbi netting in the third minute of second half added time to send the travelling support into a frenzy.

Much had been made of Sunderland's dead ball - throw-ins and set pieces - danger ahead of Saturday's clash, with Chelsea preparing for all of their threats.

But it didn't work. Isidor's leveller came from a throw-in, while Talbi's winner came from a long ball. Chelsea duo Tosin Adarabioyo and Trevoh Chalobah failed to dispossess Brian Brobbey before he teed up Talbi to find the back of the net from close range.

It brought to an end a four-game winning run in all competitions in frustrating fashion, and even more so when Chelsea had worked on nullifying the dangers they were fully aware of.

Cucurella told Chelsea's in-house media post-match: "The goals we conceded, we know we can manage these situations better. We know that a lot of teams are trying to use long throws more and we need to manage them better.

"We worked on them yesterday because we knew Sunderland will look to use long throws and be direct from set-pieces. I think maybe we relaxed a little bit, and they punished us. It’s no excuse, we need to learn from this and make sure this situation doesn’t happen again.

"Then with the second goal, again, I think we need to manage things better. It’s true that we always look to win, especially at home, but we’ve been caught out on the counter-attack and been punished. It’s small mistakes but ones we need to learn from.

"The good thing with football is that you can always put things right quickly. We have another game on Wednesday and it’s an opportunity for us to get back with a win."

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