XABI ALONSO slammed his Chelsea defenders after Brian Brobbey pounded them into submission at Sunderland.

Levi Colwill was hauled off after giving away the decisive penalty for a foul on the Dutchman while he also ran Wesley Fofana ragged in their 1-0 loss at the Stadium of Light.

Alonso, whose side slipped to fifth, denied Brobbey had bullied his backline but said: “Out of almost nothing, he got a couple of chances. He got the penalty as well, but we have been preparing for that.

“No, [he’s] not unstoppable. He’s stoppable, but when you defend better than we did today.

“No, not bullied. I would say that it was a situation that we could have defended better.”

Chelsea were denied a spot-kick of their own after a VAR check when ineffective Cole Palmer was bundled over by Luke O’Nien shortly before desperate Colwill clipped Brobbey for Enzo Le Fee to stroke home from the spot.

Spaniard Alonso said: “I haven’t seen Cole’s one but I’ve been told that there was a chance that it could be a fair penalty and it could have been given.

“And the other one, I’m not happy with how we defended that situation, something that we could avoid, something that we had worked during the week and from that action to give a penalty is not good for us.”

Chelsea made 648 passes compared to Sunderland’s 292 but only produced four shots on target.

Much of their 69 per cent possession was spent passing from side to side as they struggled without injured striker Joao Pedro.

Alonso added: “For sure we miss him. Even when we win, even when we lose, we miss some players that we have injured and for sure we are waiting to have them back because they are important.

“Now we need to use the time to recover them, but with the players we have to get ready for the next one. It’s quite hard now where one player is out and then another player is back. There are situations.”

Meanwhile, Chelsea goalkeeper Mike Penders felt it was team-mate Colwill fouled rather than Brobbey for the penalty.

Though the Belgian, 21, admitted: “You know when you come here in this stadium it will be a difficult game and that was the matter tonight.

“We knew it would be tough, we are disappointed we lost the game. At one point it went very fast from side to side. Sometimes we had to control.

“With 11 behind the ball it is difficult to find the spaces. How you do – good or not – it is a matter of staying together.

“The international break is coming so the lads can be calm in the head and when we all come back we need to be motivated to go again.”