Aaron Cresswell felt West Ham United’s slow start at Stamford Bridge on Monday cost them the chance of taking points off Chelsea.
The Blues roared into a first half lead with a show of incisive, attacking football, crowned by Eden Hazard’s wonderful individual goal.
West Ham came back into the contest in the second half and went close through Manuel Lanzini and Cresswell himself, but were undone a second time by Hazard at the death.
The Belgian will get the plaudits for his performance - and in particular his first goal - but Cresswell felt the visitors could have done more to stop him.
“First half we let ourselves down,” he admitted. “They’ve got some world class players but from our point of view it wasn’t good enough and we started sloppily.
“Second half we had a good spell but just needed the rub of the green to get that goal and make it a different game.
“Unfortunately they went up the other end to get the second goal and then it’s game over.
“As an attacker you’d say there’s little you can do about it [Hazard’s first], but as a defender it’s not good enough. He’s strolled through three or four players - we know he’s capable of that - but from our point of view it’s not good enough.”