Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso has accepted that his side were punished for their own inconsistency. Speaking in London after the defeat, he said the team failed to keep up the level of play needed to compete with Brentford across the full 90 minutes. In his view, the loss came from dips in performance during stretches of the match rather than from anything outside the squad's control. Alonso stressed that he did not want to make excuses for the result. His remarks made it clear he expects his players to sustain their standard from the first minute to the last. The admission points to a wider problem of consistency rather than a one-off bad night for the team.