Chelsea centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly has blamed Chelsea’s poor form on Chelsea players and not Chelsea boss Graham Potter.

Following Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Newcastle United, the Blues have now lost four of our last five games in all competitions under Potter, but Koulibaly insists that the players must take full blame for the alarming dip in form.

“It hurts, we came here to take three points,” the defender told Canal Plus after the Newcastle loss.

”We knew that they were in a good moment, that they are putting on the intensity and that especially at home they have their audience behind them. Today Chelsea are not in their place and the only culprits are us. So we must look each other in the eye and continue to work to put Chelsea in their place.”

Koulibaly hopes the World Cup break will do Chelsea some good, as he added: ”The break comes at the good time for us, we need to recharge the batteries, think about something else and come back after the World Cup with a different mentality.”