Alonso criticises Chelsea players with harsh messages, and refuses to blame the officiating

We did not do enough to deserve the win

Xabi Alonso refused to hide behind excuses after Chelsea's one-nil defeat to Sunderland, admitting his players fell short at both ends of the pitch.

Controversy erupted over the penalty that settled the game, awarded when the referee ruled that Levi Colwill had brought down Brian Brobbey.

Chelsea goalkeeper Mike Penders slammed the decision, telling Sky Sports: "For me, it was not a penalty. He barely touched him, and I think it was the other way round, as it was he who held him."

Metro newspaper carried Alonso's comments to the BBC, where he said: "I have not watched the replay again. I have nothing to say about the referee. It is about a mistake on our part, and we could have performed better."

He added: "I think it was a situation he could have defended better. It is our mistake."

Brobbey's display drew Alonso's admiration, and not just for the penalty he won. The Spaniard felt his defenders should have handled the powerful Dutch forward far better.

"Through the counter-attacks that came from almost nothing, he managed to get two chances, as well as the penalty," Alonso explained. "But we were preparing for this, and we tried to deal with it, and we could have performed better."

He added: "He is not an unstoppable player. He can be stopped, but that requires defending better than we did today."

The former Real Madrid boss clearly disliked what he saw from his back line, and the frustration ran through to his forwards too.

"I think we probably did not deserve more than one point," he said. "Honestly, not much happened. We did not do enough to deserve the win."

He continued: "We faced a team defending in a low block, and we lacked some patience, quality and creativity in the final third to create more chances. We needed to be more consistent in moving the ball from side to side, but we did not do that enough."

Put to him that Sunderland's physicality allowed them to bully the Chelsea players, the manager pushed back: "We were not physically dominated. There were situations we could have defended better, and others we could have exploited better in attack."