Graham Potter and Chelsea now face a fight to finish in the top four (Reuters)

Graham Potter believes fatigue and a tough schedule are partly to blame for Chelsea’s poor run of form following their 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United on Saturday.

The result at St James’ Park means Chelsea have now registered three straight defeats in all competitions for the first time since 2002.

Joe Willock’s superb second-half strike was enough to secure the win for Newcastle, while Chelsea looked off the pace for the majority of the game.

The defeat has left Potter’s side eighth in the Premier League table heading into the World Cup break and eight points behind fourth-placed Tottenham, who have played a game more.

When asked if he is concerned by Chelsea’s poor run of form, Potter replied: ‘It’s not nice to not get results.

‘It’s as simple as that but I have to look at why that is and the situation that we’ve had to deal with. It hasn’t been straightforward at all.

Chelsea have suffered three straight defeats in all competitions (Action Images via Reuters)

‘We’ve had a lot of games, a few injuries to key players, destabilised us, today again you see they’re missing. Just had a period that’s been incredibly challenging.

‘You face four of the teams in the best moment in the Premier League in terms of the version of themselves and that can challenge you as well. As much as we can’t accept it, we have to deal with it and try to move forward.’

Potter also believes Chelsea’s growing injury list and intense schedule has contributed to their struggles.

‘It doesn’t make it any easier. Losing Ruben when we did and the Azpi was also struggling a little bit so we had to take him off at half time,’ POtter said.

‘It doesn’t make it easy against a team in a really good moment, playing with huge intensity and while I thought the first half was even, they started the second half better than us.

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‘We had to adjust a little bit and we did that. Conor had an opportunity, Pope made a good save then Newcastle scored and we had to push again.

‘I think we had too many unforced errors to maintain any real good quality and pressure. Again, credit to Newcastle, they’re playing well, and they’re in a really good moment. You can see probably the difference in schedules of one game a week versus the intense period we’ve had.

‘I thought we had some opportunities. Too many unforced errors, I thought we got into some spaces quite well but then a sloppy pass that isn’t normally like us.

‘I have to defend the players in terms of fatigue, in terms of what we’ve had to deal with but Newcastle don’t make it easy for you. You can see they’re one of the best teams defensively in the Premier League so again, credit to them for that. It was a tough game for us.’

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Chelsea have now suffered three straight defeats in all competitions.