Former Chelsea midfielder Craig Burley tore into the Chelsea team after a 2-1 defeat to Southampton.

It was a poor performance away from home, coming after a poor away clash against Leeds United at Elland Road.

According to Burley, Chelsea’s performance at the St Mary’s Stadium was unacceptable.

Burley told ESPN: “They were poor and it wasn’t surprising. Yes, they beat Leicester at the weekend but again, away from home, they’re poor.

“They took the lead against a team a lot of people are tipping for relegation. None of Southampton’s players would get near the Chelsea team.

“It’s another unacceptable performance. It’s unacceptable. I know they’ve got one or two out [injured] but so what? It just wasn’t good enough. And it’s not an anomaly.

“Look at the performance at Leeds. They scrapped a win at Everton. I’m sorry, we’re trying to find excuses here but it’s not good enough.”

Burley picked out Havertz, Mason Mount, Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech as the players who played poorly, and heaped lots of blame on Kai Havertz who has had a poor start to the season.

According to Burley, Havertz is going the same way as Timo Werner.

He added: “Listen, with Kai Havertz, I’ve said it before… it’s all very well playing well in the Champions League, scoring in the final, that’s great for him, but there’s 50 games in a season.

“Timo Werner’s gone back and scored a hat-trick in Germany, that tells you all you need to know. He couldn’t cut it in England and Havertz is the same.

“Mount’s not playing well. They’ll all been crying about Pulisic after that. It’s up to these players to do it.

“Ziyech, he’s lightweight. When he came in under [former manager Frank] Lampard we were all worried because he looked injury-prone and weak.

“These players are all worth millions. The manager needs to sort it out.”