Rudiger issues Chelsea rallying call

Antonio Rudiger wants Chelsea to use the pain of last weekend’s dismal 3-1 defeat at Tottenham as a source of fuel for Sunday’s visit of Fulham.

Maurizio Sarri’s side were uncharacteristically lacklustre at Wembley, where the Blues suffered a first loss of the Premier League season.

Rudiger – who played no part in Thursday’s 4-0 Europa League win over PAOK – was at a loss to explain the nature of the performance against Spurs, but insisted no major changes were needed.

“It’s difficult to tell [what went wrong] because sometimes you have one or two players that are not in good shape but it was the whole team,” the Germany international told Sky Sports.

“It was a bit weird. It’s hard to explain but, if you play like this, you deserve to lose.

“I can tell you so many things but it’s just excuses at the end of the day. The only thing I can say is that we have to see this as a very big and hard lesson and move on.

“We have to bounce back. It’s clear. We have to show a reaction.

We fall to our first league defeat of the season… #TOTCHE pic.twitter.com/s8kIMTokLl

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) 24 November 2018

“We lost this game but do we need to question everything? I don’t think so.

“After defeat you always have to step up. It’s not the end of the world. We are now going into the end of November, December – who thought we would be unbeaten?

“Of course how we lost is very, very bad but at the end of the day it’s not the end of the world. We have to look forward and keep doing what we can do best.

“Fulham is a local derby and it’s very important for the fans and me. It’s my first experience. I take every game seriously and try to win, especially a game like that.”