Leroy: “Irons showed Chelsea too much respect “

I was disappointed with the way we played today!

We adopted the wrong system in my opinion, and with Alex Song off the pitch for an hour and Stewart Downing out wide, we were always going to find trouble.

I felt after getting so many points on the board in recent games we’d go with the diamond and have a right go. Instead of that we showed Chelsea far too much respect and allowed them to dominate. Disappointing!

Don’t get me wrong. Chelsea were brilliant – their football was awesome at times and there was no shame in the defeat per se.

Not many would have lived with them this afternoon but we could and should have done better – we showed them too much respect and didn’t have enough belief in ourselves because we are a very good side.

We have them a big helping hand by playing Downing wide  because we would have had more quality on the ball had he been in his normal position in the normal formation – that’s been the whole key to our success this season

Someone said to me earlier it looks as though Sam has gone back to Andy Carroll and one other. I don’t agree with that because it’s difficult to drop an in-form striker who has been among the goals.

However, we know that Cahill and Terry love a battle with a big man so I’d thought the manager may go with Valencia and Sakho who have the pace and movement to upset them.

I don’t know either why it took so long to bring on Song because the minute he arrived we looked a different side. That disappointed me.

Let’s put it behind us and move on to Arsenal. They are nothing like as good as Chelsea but if we give them the amount of respect and possession we allowed Chelsea they will play it around forever.

We need to get back to doing what we do best – taking games to the opposition and showing real belief in our own game.