Manager had right to be angry with Chelsea, says Ivanovic

Branislav Ivanovic admitted Andre Villas-Boas had every right to read the riot act to his players after Chelsea conceded five goals at home for the first time in 22 years.

Blues boss Villas-Boas denied delivering a "rant" to his squad during the post-mortem of Saturday's 5-3 Barclays Premier League defeat to Arsenal but Ivanovic would not have complained had he done so.

The Serbian, who partnered captain John Terry in the heart of Chelsea's defence at the weekend, confirmed the players had already watched a re-run of the match.

"We didn't play like we should," he said. "It was a tough game and I think there were a lot of reasons for the manager to be angry, but not only the manager.

"The whole team were angry and we have to show a reaction, to show character, and change things in our side for us."

Chelsea's dressing room is hardly full of shrinking violets and there were plenty of honest words among the players themselves.

Ivanovic said: "Between us, there's always good communication and good chatting after the game.

"Straight away, we knew where we went wrong."

The 27-year-old added: "The words don't need to be (explained) because every one of us has to look in the mirror and be honest about how we played defensively.

"We know how we made mistakes and how we plan to do things better. We have to be fully concentrated for the whole game and be strong for 90 minutes.

"When you're talking about the defence, you never talk about personal mistakes. In football, that can happen. We're talking about our game defensively. The whole team defends, the whole team attacks.

"In some moments, we lost some concentration. We weren't fully concentrated and things happened that we didn't want to happen, and that changed the game psychologically. This could be one of the most important things in our season after this game: a great reaction of the group would be good to show how we are strong."

Some have questioned whether Villas-Boas' attacking philosophy has made Chelsea too open.
Ivanovic said: "He hasn't asked us to change something defensively.

"Defence is simple. You have to be better than your opponent, to show more wish to win every tackle in every game.

"Of course we are playing more attacking football, but to lose a game 5-3 at home, it's a defensively poor game."