Liam Rosenior accused a Chelsea player of ‘marking the flawed player’ for Burnley’s injury-time equaliser at Stamford Bridge.
Joao Pedro’s early goal looked to have earned Chelsea a 1-0 win over Burnley despite Wesley Fofana’s second-half red card.
But Zian Flemming headed home James Ward‑Prowse’s late corner to earn relegation-battlers Burnley some extent and dent Chelsea’s Champions League hopes.
The draw sends Chelsea back into the top-four places but Manchester United will reclaim that position in the event that they avoid defeat against Everton on Monday night, while Liverpool will join the Blues on 45 points in the event that they beat Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
Burnley, meanwhile, stay nineteenth – eight points from safety – despite avoiding defeat for less than the eleventh time in 27 games this season.
Rosenior described the draw as ‘really frustrating’, particularly as Chelsea also didn’t beat fellow relegation-battlers Leeds United last week.
‘We should always have killed the sport,’ Rosenior said after Chelsea’s draw with Burnley. ‘I assumed we began the sport thoroughly.
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‘After the primary goal we were glad just to keep up possession and never be ruthless. You could be ruthless on this league because in the event you don’t defend set plays well, which we haven’t, then you definitely get punished.
‘That’s something that is basically, really frustrating about today’s performance. It’s very frustrating. We should always have 4 more points from our last two home games.
‘It’s so simple as that. We now have to make it up. We now have an enormous game away at Arsenal next week and we’ve got to deal with that and be sure we pick up our performances and pick up our discipline in key moments.’
Rosenior also revealed one in all his players ‘marked the flawed player’ for the decisive corner from which Burnley scored.
‘An task was missed. An task, a marking task wasn’t done,’ the Chelsea boss added.
‘[Zian] Flemming, we all know, is their best header of the ball. And there was a player who I won’t [name], I’m not here to throw players under the bus, I’ll all the time protect my players.
‘But I’ll take care of it within the week. There was a player we assigned that duty who marked the flawed player.’
Fofana’s dismissal was Chelsea’s eighth red card of the season – greater than some other team within the Premier League.
Asked whether he can be holding an inquest into Chelsea’s poor disciplinary record, Rosenior said: ‘No, I’ve said this before. I’ve been asked this before. I won’t ever, ever talk about what’s happened before me.
‘What has happened with me is we’ve got set fire to 4 points from two home games. Anyone watching the sport, it’s not adequate for a club of this level.
‘It’s not adequate for me to return and say we were the higher team. We have to be the higher team in every game. We’d like to win games of football.
‘I do know what the reply is and we’ll address it within the week. There’s an inquest after every game whether we win or lose.
‘I’m learning concerning the players. I’m learning concerning the people you possibly can lean on when things aren’t going your way and you might want to see a game out. That’s something we’d like to handle in a short time.
‘Our discipline since I’ve are available in, which is what I only speak on, has been superb.
‘That was an unlucky red card for Wes, he stepped in on a challenge. I felt there was something that might have been handled higher before that happened by the referee and went unnoticed.
‘But you’re going to get red cards, it’s too many. It’s too many of course. But in my time with the group, I believe our discipline record has been superb to this point.’
Chelsea face Premier League leaders and London rivals Arsenal next weekend while Burnley return to motion against Brentford.
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