Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas has labelled the club's 2-0 defeat by Everton at Goodison Park as their 'worst' game of the season.
Steven Pienaar gave the Toffees an early lead and the Blues were given a mountain to climb after the break when Denis Stracqualursi added a second.
Chelsea rarely looked like scoring throughout and Villas-Boas believes the home side deserve credit for their 'terrific' display.
The Portuguese tactician was unable to focus on the positives after the full-time whistle, stating the team need to improve with FA Cup and UEFA Champions League games on the horizon.
"I think today was our worst game of the season, the worst in every sense of the word," explained Villas-Boas. "Everton were fantastic today, their new signings have helped them improve a lot.
"In our performance we were short of anything positive, it's a difficult day, there were a lot of negatives to take from it and a lot of things we need to improve on bearing in mind the FA Cup and Champions League.
"We suffered early in the game and though we controlled possession to the end of the first half we couldn't create enough chances.
"The second half was very even, but it was physical and we couldn't create enough chances, so in the end it was a lack of clarity that punished us hard.
"At the moment we are fifth and that's not enough for us. We played with Mata between the lines when I brought (Michael) Essien off but they scored straight away so I decided to put three strikers up front, and that was the logic behind my thinking."
Responsibility
Villas-Boas was critical of his own preparation of the team ahead of the game and the under-pressure manager has accepted full responsibility for the defeat at Goodison Park.
"Maybe on the instructions, maybe on the clarity of the instructions for the players," he continued. "I think the manager has to take fully responsibility when things don't go well and it was not good today.
"The commitment was there from the players. After we suffered the goal we had a setback, but we reacted to that setback. Maybe making a good reflection the right things at the right time must be given."
