Calum McFarlane pushed back the suggestion that Chelsea's players had downed tools during their barren Premier League run over the last couple of months. 

Chelsea slipped down to ninth in the Premier League and out of Champions League contention following a shock 3-1 defeat to relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest. 

The Blues have now lost six consecutive league games for the fourth time in their history, and for the first time since between October and November back in 1993.

In addition, Chelsea have lost four consecutive home league games for the second time in their history, previously doing so between August and September 1978, as thousands of fans left Stamford Bridge early on Monday.

But ahead of this weekend's trip to Liverpool, who, with a win, could all but secure a return to UEFA's flagship competition, McFarlane said the mood in the squad was positive despite their recent run of results.

"I would not agree with that," McFarlane said. "The performances haven't been good enough. We are in a really bad run at the moment.

"The Leeds [United] performance was a glimmer where we thought we could build on that, but we weren't able to do that.

"I see these boys every day, every training session, every meeting and in the gym.

"They are in a good place to go and attack games. We just haven't been able to translate that to the game on Monday, so hopefully, we can improve that on Saturday."

Should Chelsea lose at Anfield, it would be the first time since between November and December 1952 that they have lost seven league matches in a row.

The Blues have won just one of their last 10 Premier League away games against Liverpool (D5 L4), a 1-0 victory in March 2021 under Thomas Tuchel, while they have conceded in each of their last 13 top-flight matches, shipping three goals in four of their last five. 

But they come up against a Liverpool side that have lost 11 league matches this season, their most since the 2014-15 campaign under Brendan Rodgers, when they lost 12.

Following Chelsea's defeat to Forest, former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher described the club as "broken", with the club having already sacked both Enzo Maresca and Liam Rosenior during the 2025-26 campaign.

"It is Jamie's job to give his opinion, and I respect that. That's his job, and that's what he is there to do," McFarlane added.

"I can only speak on my experience at this club, and I think there are a lot of foundations for this team to have success.

"We are not in the best form at the moment, we are not performing the way we should be, but I do think that there are foundations there to be successful."

In terms of team news, McFarlane confirmed Robert Sanchez would be out after sustaining a serious head injury during a clash with Forest midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White.

Jesse Derry is also out, while Pedro Neto and Alejandro Garnacho are doubts, though there was some positive news surrounding both Reece James and Levi Colwill. 

"Neto and Garnacho are carrying knocks, so it is looking unlikely that they will be available," McFarlane said.

"Rob is also not going to be available after the injury that he sustained in the Nottingham Forest game."

"We've got a few lads returning. Levi [Colwill] and Reece [James] have trained a full week. It's looking promising. We've still got another session, but they both trained fully [on Thursday]. We are hopeful."