Chelsea need to beat Everton on Thursday to move back two points behind league leaders Man City

Chelsea have fallen from first to third after dropping seven points across the past six games, including a surprise draw at home to Burnley, followed by a defeat at West Ham

Their previously watertight defence, which had shipped only three goals in their opening 10 league games, has been breached 11 times in the last six.

Their last clean sheet came against Newcastle in October, they needed a last-minute Jorginho penalty to beat Leeds at the weekend while a late Zenit St Petersburg equaliser denied them top spot in their Champions League group last week.

Despite that, Blues legend Hasselbaink thinks it is too early to ask whether Chelsea are in any form of crisis given they are still within touching distance of the top of the league.

Speaking at a Signathon Live event, the Dutchman told Sky Sports the Blues’ run had highlighted how little their standards had to drop for results to turn.

He said: “We’re talking about them having a blip, but actually, they have been doing so well, absolutely magnificently, that people are looking at them conceding a few goals and a few things going against them like the West Ham game, and thinking there is something wrong. It happens.

“Yes, they have conceded a few more goals than normal, and it might be that certain individuals might not be as focused as they were because it was getting a little too easy – so they might have to reset themselves on that front to put that right.

“It’s more complacency than going off the boil. Not putting in 100 per cent, putting in 90 per cent – and 10 per cent is a lot in the Premier League. So looking at the West Ham game, they were winning and cruising; normally they don’t look back, the opposition don’t come back. So there must be some kind of complacency involved.”

Thomas Tuchel has been forced to make changes to his Chelsea line-up with a number of injuries in key positions ruling out N’Golo Kante, Ben Chilwell and Romelu Lukaku. Kante, arguably his most influential player when fit, has started just six Premier League games during which time the Blues have conceded only twice.

Hasselbaink, manager of League One side Burton Albion, said Tuchel had a simple solution to address the issue with his players, with whom he won the Champions League and 11 of his 19 Premier League games in his first season at Stamford Bridge in 2020/21.