Claudio Ranieri has admitted responsibility after Chelsea's first-round exit from the Uefa Cup at the hands of Viking Stavanger.
Chelsea lost 4-2 away to the Norwegian side last night, 5-4 on aggregate, which was their third successive early exit to a small club.
Ranieri was quoted in today's London Evening Standard as saying he was shocked that his side conceded so many goals.
"I am not happy because we conceded four goals and that is strange for Chelsea," he said. "We dominated but made a lot of mistakes and gave them four goals as presents.
"I am very disappointed and as manager I take a lot of the responsibility."
The Chelsea players also apologised to the fans but struggled to explain the causes for the defeat.
"I don't know what to say, I really don't," Gianfranco Zola was quoted as saying on Chelsea's official website.
"I feel sorry for all the fans who made the trip," the Italian striker added.
Striker Jesper Gronkjaer echoed Zola's sentiments when he said: "We're all deeply disappointed. I feel really sorry for the fans who travelled so far and then we had such a performance."
He added that Chelsea were poor in all departments but should have scored more goals. "Poor defending, we should have scored more goals, I should have scored. We created so many chances but we've scored only two," said Gronkjaer.
Meanwhile, Viking's Erik Nevland, who scored two goals including the 87th minute decider, said Chelsea had lacked fighting spirit.
"Chelsea wanted to outplay us all the time, but maybe they could learn a bit from us in terms of fighting spirit," he said.
