Arne Slot says it is his job to provide answers, not excuses, for Liverpool's current plight of one point from their last three matches.
The problem is, he doesn't have any. Just as the Reds looked to be clicking back into gear, slowly but surely with four wins from five, they have been brought crashing back to earth with poor results against Wolves, Tottenham and now Brighton.
Jamie Carragher said last week that patience was running thin among the Anfield faithful and after the false dawn of an overdue 4-0 win over Galatasaray in midweek, a performance of intensity and front-foot football, Saturday was back to square one.
Slot did have an excuse, despite his comments, that Mo Salah was missing and Hugo Ekitike was forced off early on. But Liverpool's lack of chance creation and the drop-off in entertainment has been a consistent problem for most of the season, with or without the flair of those two players. Answers were needed weeks if not months ago.
The Your Site website's call for comments following a 10th defeat of the season, the most in a decade, was met with near wall-to-wall anger directed at the manager in response from Liverpool fans.
No matter what happens in the final seven games of the season, he has some patching up to do. But if that does not end with Champions League qualification, it may be too little, too late.
Ron Walker
There's no doubt that Casemiro has played an important role for Manchester United this season.
"One more year" chanted the home fans during the win over Aston Villa.
In a midfield that has often lacked structure and authority, his experience, positional awareness and winning mentality have helped steady the ship. At times, he has looked like the glue holding things together and the glowing reviews have reflected that.
However, United's long-term ambitions cannot be built around short-term fixes. And performances like the one against Bournemouth serve as a reminder of why it's best he moves on in the summer when his contract is up.
Against Bournemouth's energetic midfield runners, Casemiro was repeatedly exposed. Quick players driving beyond him highlighted a growing limitation in his game remains around mobility. He was booked for a cynical foul as he struggled to recover ground and perhaps more concerningly, he lost possession 14 times - a notably high number for a player whose primary responsibility is to protect the ball and dictate tempo with simplicity.
Premier League midfielders are built on athleticism, pressing and the ability to transition quickly. Letting him leave on a free transfer at the end of the season may feel like a loss on paper, but in reality, it could represent smart squad evolution.
Lewis Jones
Danny Welbeck would have good reason to wonder why Thomas Tuchel's 35-man England squad could not find room for him. Even before his double against Liverpool, he was the top-scoring Englishman in the Premier League this season.
It's hard to know exactly why he was left out for Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Tuchel may think the 35-year-old's best days are behind him, or that his inclusion would be a short-term measure given his age.
But Welbeck is now enjoying the most profitable season of his long career after netting his 11th and 12th goals of the campaign on Saturday afternoon.
That put him four ahead of Ollie Watkins, who may yet end a Premier League season without scoring double figures for the first time in his career, and Calvert-Lewin who has already hit 10 goals but has netted only once in the last two months.
Welbeck is also well overperforming his expected goals tally (by 2.47), while both Watkins and Calvert-Lewin lag behind their own (both -1.7).
It is probably too late for Welbeck to make Tuchel's final World Cup squad, despite his tournament experience, but it is certainly England's loss and Brighton's gain that their top scorer can have a couple of weeks' well-earned rest.
Ron Walker
You can understand just why Fulham fans are starting to get twitchy about the future of star man Harry Wilson, whose latest man-of-the-match display helped turn around his side's game with struggling Burnley at Craven Cottage.
The forward was already the hosts' most dangerous attacking outlet prior to cutting inside and drilling a low shot with his left foot inside the near post as the Cottagers went from trailing to leading in the blink of an eye after half-time.
That was Wilson's 10th Premier League goal of a hugely impressive campaign - his best-ever top-flight return - many of them contenders for goal of the season too, meaning he will be coveted this summer if he opts not to extend his stay in the capital.
The Wales international's current contract runs out at the end of the season, with manager Marco Silva reiterating after the game that there was still "no news" regarding a new deal for the club's undoubted player of the season.
If that impasse were to continue, you can bet your bottom dollar there will be a queue of suitors waiting to lure the 28-year-old away from the west London club he has graced for the last five years.
Rich Morgan
Beto won the player of the match award but David Moyes rightly pointed out that James Garner was the best player on the pitch. Exquisite is how he described Garner's pass to Beto that unlocked Chelsea's defence for the opener but he did much more than that.
Restored to the midfield after playing at right-back against Arsenal, Garner celebrated his England call-up with a complete performance in Everton's 3-0 win - throwing himself into tackles and completing more passes in the final third that any of his team-mates.
If Thomas Tuchel wants proof that Garner is good enough, he should watch this game against Chelsea's expensively assembled midfield. "The levels of the players who he was up against was always going to be a judge of how he could perform," said Moyes.
"I think he has taken that on greatly. He has taken it as a challenge and tonight, the way he played, his endeavour and speed to recover the ball back is another side of his game we need because we don't always have the ball as much as the likes of a Chelsea."
As Moyes pointed out, Garner has been playing like this for some time now. "That level of a performance is not just tonight and that is why he has been called up." Anyone surprised by Garner's call-up ahead of the World Cup has not been paying attention.
"He was on the radar. He had to keep doing it all the time up against [Enzo] Fernandez tonight, Elliot Anderson at Nottingham Forest or Declan Rice at Arsenal. If you think about the level of players he is having to play against, he is doing a brilliant job."
Adam Bate
Everton were excellent against Chelsea and David Moyes knew it. "It would be hard to say that we didn't deserve to win that game tonight," he said in the press conference afterwards, going on to say that you would be "off your head" to suggest otherwise.
It was easy to see what he meant because Everton showed far greater intensity than Chelsea in a 3-0 win that reduces the gap between the teams to only two points. But it is also true that the expected-goals data indicated Chelsea had the better chances.
For all the scrutiny on Liam Rosenior, that reveals something about Chelsea's problems in both boxes. These players are not clinical at one end of the pitch, having failed to score in their last three matches now, while continuing to make costly errors at the other.
It was a tale of two goalkeepers at the Hill Dickinson Stadium. Jordan Pickford produced two magnificent stops to deny Enzo Fernandez. Robert Sanchez allowed a shot hit straight at him to squirm beyond the goal line. Chelsea had been on top at the time.
Rosenior's style and status means that he is reluctant to criticise players he needs to keep onside. "I want to protect my players always." But as the pressure builds on the head coach, Chelsea look like a team letting their season slip away from them.
Adam Bate
Another 90 minutes, another blank for Leeds. The 0-0 draw with Brentford won't live long in the memory, but for Leeds, it deepens a concern that is beginning to drag their season down. They have now gone four consecutive Premier League matches without scoring - 419 minutes of football where the net hasn't bulged once. Strip it back even further and the numbers become even more alarming.
Their only goal from open play in the last 581 minutes of Premier League action came courtesy of Noah Okafor at Chelsea on February 10.
What makes this run particularly worrying is the lack of clear signs it's about to end. Against Brentford, Leeds had moments where they threatened to build pressure, but the final act - the most important one - was missing. Crosses drifted harmlessly, shots were snatched at, and promising positions broke down under the slightest defensive resistance.
The margins at the bottom are always fine, but goal droughts like this tend to have consequences. Leeds are flirting with one right now.
Lewis Jones
