Rio Ferdinand has heavily criticised the Chelsea defending in the recent 3-0 defeat against Arsenal.

The blues were going into the game at the Emirates stadium unbeaten against the gunners in the last five years. Their last defeat was the high scoring 5-3 game at Stamford Bridge in 2011. This impressive record meant that the team was always going to be favourite despite playing away from home. Chelsea, however, were unable to continue their impressive run against the Gunners after a dreadful performance in the first half. All three goals from Arsenal came in the first half.

After the game, Ferdinand claimed that this was one of the worst defensive displays he has seen from Chelsea. Gary Cahill was a primary factor in the loss as his very poor backpass resulted in Alexis Sanchez capitalising inside the opening 15 minutes. It was one of the worst possible starts Chelsea could have imagined in such a big game. The blues never recovered from this setback and went on to concede more goals from Theo Walcott, who has a habit of scoring against Chelsea, and Mesut Ozil. There was not much of a fightback from the away team, while manager Antonio Conte later did not want to criticise Cahill for his poor performance yet again.

“He [Cahill] had this situation last week [against Swansea]. He said it was a foul, this was nowhere near a foul. Take your time on the ball and I’ll take it off you. I’ll make sure you get punished. You cannot give Arsenal the kind of space Chelsea have given and not expect to get punished,” said Ferdinand. Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola says that the result puts the manager under intense pressure. The West London outfit are now without a league win in three games including back-to-back defeats.