Bolton Wanderers' Reo-Coker Blames Players for Chelsea Defeat

Bolton Wanderers midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker has openly criticised his club's performance following their 0-3 defeat to Chelsea, in a Premier league game on Saturday.

Speaking in the aftermath of the game, Reo-Coker (who is also the club's captain), said the team had let themselves and their fans down and the players were the only ones who could be blamed for the heavy defeat.

"The sad and true fact of the matter is, we just weren't good enough. We crumbled - we were soft. They were soft goals to give away and it was a soft character to show considering the situation we're in. And if people are questioning the mentality then you can't blame them," Reo-Coker is quoted as saying, in a Sky Sports report.

Chelsea went in to the weekend's game on the back of a miserable run of form that had yielded only one win in seven games in all competitions. This run included a lacklustre 1-3 defeat to Napoli in the first leg of their Champions League tie and the squandering of a 3-0 lead against league rivals Manchester United.

Given their hosts' travails, Bolton would have fancied their chances of maybe walking away from Stamford Bridge with all three points. As it turned out however, the mixture of a surprisingly dominant (albeit in patches) Chelsea performance and a poor Bolton display meant David Luiz, Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard were able to give their club and manager some much-needed breathing space.

Chelsea will next play West Bromwich Albion, away, on 3 March and Bolton will be away to league leaders Manchester City on the same day.