Liam Rosenior refused to blame the players he replaced as three half-time substitutions helped Chelsea storm back to win 3-2 against West Ham at Stamford Bridge.
There were seven changes from the side which had beaten Napoli in the Champions League on Wednesday, and that decision backfired heavily as the home side were booed off at the break following goals from Jarrod Bowen and Crysencio Summerville.
The Blues looked a mess, disorganised down a left flank from where the Hammers scored their two goals and lacking in cohesion in attack.
Rosenior turned to Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella and Joao Pedro on his bench at the interval and the move paid off – it was the first time in Premier League history that Chelsea had come from two down at half-time to win.
Fofana set up a goal for Pedro then Cucurella headed home the equaliser.
Pedro, fresh from his two goals in Naples, set up the winner in stoppage time for Enzo Fernandez, but afterwards Rosenior pointed towards a collective failure in the first half.
“My biggest learning is that there’s a spirit and a fight, and a resilience in this group that I really like,” he said.
“I’ve demanded from the first day. I’ve spoken about reacting positively to setbacks, about reactions to losing the ball, pressing, energy and intensity. All of that was there in the second half which wasn’t there in the first half.
“I don’t put that just down to the changes I made. We’ve had so many games in a short space of time, I was fearful of a lack of energy. I felt our decision-making was really poor in the first half.
“The reaction in the second half tells me we’ve got something really special here if I can utilise the squad in the correct way.”
Jorrel Hato, Alejandro Garnacho and Benoit Badiashile were the players withdrawn at half-time.
“It’s easy right – the individuals came off and then people will look at them,” said Rosenior. “That wasn’t on them. It was a collective poor performance in the first half.”
West Ham’s first goal was fortunate as Bowen’s cross evaded goalkeeper Robert Sanchez and sneaked inside the post, but their second was a belter from Summerville.
It capped a miserable first half which drew ire from home supporters.
“They were right to boo,” said Rosenior. “I would have booed us in the first half.
“I said to the players at half-time, we can make the worst feeling of the season into the best feeling of the season.”
West Ham’s afternoon was compounded when Jean-Clair Todibo was dismissed in stoppage time for violent conduct after grabbing the Pedro’s throat.
Manager Nuno Espirito Santo, whose side remain five points adrift of safety, reflected on the challenge to come, but bemoaned the way his team had allowed Chelsea back.
“There’s a lot of football to be played,” he said. “If we can maintain the levels we played at in the first half, we will win matches.
“We allowed their centre-half to step in and cross (for Pedro’s goal). After that we tried to survive.”
