Jose Mourinho wants Chelsea to be more ruthless at both ends of the pitch in Monday's top of the Premier League encounter with Arsenal.
The Portuguese has bemoaned the Blues' continual failings in front of goal and now hopes for greater defensive steel from his attacking side in order to win important matches such as Monday's at the Emirates Stadium, when his side have the chance to assume pole position in the Premier League.
Mourinho said: "If we cannot improve our efficiency in front of the goal, we have to improve in the other end. We have to improve when we lose possession of the ball. That's obvious.
"We cannot just let the players hide behind the fact that we are not scoring enough goals and wait for that to happen. We cannot play for that.
"People (need) to change their brains a little bit more.
"To be a team to play very good football is an important step. To be a team that plays very good football and wins lots of matches is a more difficult step.
"That step is only possible when that offensive team defends very well when it doesn't have possession of the ball.
"Some players that are used to playing with the ball at their feet and are very comfortable in the offensive phase.
"When the team loses the ball, they have to be also very comfortable working a lot for the team."
Chelsea's strikers have scored five Premier League goals this season - Fernando Torres, Samuel Eto'o (two each) and Demba Ba (one) - compared to Arsenal's leading striker Olivier Giroud (seven). All of the strikers' goals have come at Stamford Bridge.
Mourinho is clearly frustrated by the lack of potency of his Chelsea strike force, but reiterated he will not change tack.
Given the options in the three playmaking roles Mourinho prefers - Eden Hazard, Oscar, Juan Mata, Andre Schurrle, Kevin De Bruyne and Willian - it would be difficult to alter the system.
"We don't need to change formation to think (about) the game in a different way and to try to improve in certain aspects of our game," Mourinho added.
"We know that we don't have the player with the qualities to be the killer that scores week after week and game after game and to express, in terms of numbers, the quality of the football we are playing.
"But we can improve our results, having more security when we lose possession of the ball.
"We are being punished when we lose the ball."
Mourinho has spent entire training sessions focusing on defensive aspects in a bid to stem the tide, for every time his side misses a chance, he feels the opposition will capitalise.
He added: "When you are winning 1-0 and you miss one, two, three times the chance to kill opponents ... we see the difficult moment of the opponent but the opponent survives. "
And in that moment you think they can come here and they can score a goal.
"We play with a lot of people in attack. In every match we are dominant - we have official statistics that prove that clearly - and in the matches we lost were matches where we had even more ball possession than matches we won.
"The official stats show clearly that every team against us they have their best efficiency percentage. They have two chances, they score two goals; they have three chances, they score two goals; they have one chance, they score one goal.
"When you play the way we are playing and producing the way we are producing and we are not scoring enough goals, you open the door for this to happen."
Source: PA
