Roberto De Zerbi admitted it was a ‘bad day’ for his team after their 5-1 home defeat to Everton on Monday.
“It’s very difficult to explain this performance,” the head coach said. “It was a very strange game. We conceded after 30 seconds. This wasn’t the Brighton team. It’s a bad day, we have to restart on Sunday against Arsenal.
“The problem was not about our tactical approach – I think we didn’t prepare in terms of motivation and mentality maybe.
“We’re playing a lot of games in a small period which we’re not used to. We have to work on this and I can understand.
“I am still proud of my players, the first person who is responsible for this result is the coach.”
De Zerbi wants to use the defeat as motivation for his team.
“We have to remember this game because it can be a very important day for us if we improve in mentality. We have to be ready to play one game every three or four days if we want to fight for our big target.
“Before this game, we were playing fantastic football, with fantastic results. We have to be proud of our results.
“Today we made a big mistake because we weren’t ready to play this game. We made too many mistakes, we lost the game in the first half. We weren’t the Brighton team but I am sure we will improve.”