It’s a really tough one - Cucurella on Sunderland defeat

Marc Cucurella delivered a frank assessment of Chelsea's disappointing home loss to Sunderland, insisting the team must "learn from this" experience.

The Blues surrendered a 1-0 lead at Stamford Bridge, ultimately falling to a late winner from Chemsdine Talbi that secured all three points for Regis Le Bris's side.

The result came despite statistics suggesting Chelsea had done enough to earn at least a point.

Enzo Maresca's team had enjoyed a dream start when Alejandro Garnacho scored his first goal for the club within the first five minutes. However, the visitors equalised before halftime through Wilson Isidor, setting the stage for their dramatic injury-time victory.

Speaking after the final whistle, Cucurella admitted the result was difficult to accept but urged his teammates to manage games more effectively in the future.

"It’s a really tough one to take. We are all very disappointed, of course. We need to improve with these matches. I think we need to learn to manage the game better," the Spanish defender stated.

Cucurella pointed to the team's failure to capitalise on their early dominance as a key factor in the defeat.

"We scored early, dominated at that stage but then we let the opponents back into it, and I think we need to learn to kill games off when we are on top. We scored the first goal, and I think we should have scored a second one when we had the chance. We need to learn to be better against teams that come with a game plan such as Sunderland, where they stay very narrow and compact," he explained.

Despite the setback, the left-back remains optimistic, highlighting that the season is still young.

"The good thing is that it is still early into the season. We have many games where we can improve and we have plenty of time to do this, and secure more points."

Chelsea controlled possession and had more shots on goal, but Sunderland's clinical finishing proved decisive. Cucurella felt both goals conceded were preventable, stemming from a failure to defend a long throw-in and being caught on the counter-attack.

"The goals we conceded, we know we can manage these situations 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," he said.

He added, "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."