Luiz laments no Champions League nights but says Blues only have themselves to blame

Chelsea face PAOK Salonika on Thursday in the Europa League still smarting from the 3-1 defeat to Spurs at the weekend.

David Luiz is expected to be on the bench against the Greeks and feels the upcoming matches are a chance to get back to winning ways, but he laments not being involved in Champions League nights. “In life sometimes you are going to be in places where you’d rather be somewhere else,” he said. “Of course we would prefer to be in the Champions League. The Europa League is a hard competition, especially after the group stage when a lot of big clubs from the Champions League will drop down.

“It’s another European title but we have to be honest and say it is better to play in the Champions League. But we have to be honest and say the reason we are not is because of ourselves. Everyone has to understand that last season we didn’t do very well so this season we have to realise what is important for us.”

Against Spurs at Wembley, Luiz said: “We weren’t good enough offensively, defensively, the way we attacked, we didn’t create. There was not enough possession.

“We didn’t play like we have done all season. Sometimes you have games like this, but you have to understand why and analyse.

“We have to realise that the Premier League is always difficult. You can never relax because every game is difficult to get some points. “We didn’t lose the league on Saturday, we just lost a game.

“The most important thing is to understand what we did badly so as to improve for the next match.”

Chelsea’s league fixtures sees them face Fulham, Wolves and Man City - win all three and the gap to the top is just four points - Luiz smiles: “Yes. We have a game at home against Fulham next and we have to do our job. We then play Wolves and after that against City, we must try to make the gap smaller.”

Chelsea have dropped points at home to Liverpool, Everton and Manchester United - is home form a concern?

“But look who that was against?” he said. “Everton is a great team. We did great against Manchester United. They are a top side with top players and a top coach. We did well to make it 2-2. In every game we controlled it and could have won the match earlier. Just the Liverpool match was open.

“Against United we could have killed the game 3-0 in the first half. We know Manchester United are a great team and they came back.

“Against Everton they shot once at our goal. It’s true that the results at home are not very good. I think the performances are. Now we have an opportunity to play at home again and improve that, and with our supporters, we can do everything to win the game again.”