It was a new Luiz Felipe Scolari who spoke following the 2-1 home defeat to Arsenal - a Luiz Felipe Scolari who most of all wanted to talk about the match officials.

Primarily it was the decisions of one linesman that occupied his thoughts having watched a 1-0 lead approaching an hour of the game gone turned rapidly into a deficit his shocked players could not retrieve.

'I have never spoken about the referee in 15 games in the Premier League, five games in the Champions League and others in the Carling Cup. I say nothing!

'But today it is different,' announced an agitated Chelsea manager.

'I want only that the referee and linesman tomorrow or after tomorrow look at the television and say sorry. Only this, no more, because they make mistakes and I understand. I don't want three points. I want only one time sorry.'

It was a decision to let Robin van Persie's equaliser go when replays suggested the Arsenal striker was offside by a notable distance that was the obvious source of Scolari's discontent. However he also highlighted decisions by the same official in the first half that had brought an end to Salomon Kalou attacks.

'The first half, the linesman made the same mistake but against us [attacking]. The second time, their first goal, big mistake against us, more than one metre offside. And my team after this lost concentration.

'Sure we did not play well. The first-half we played a normal game.

'I am not a coach to say anything about referees and in this league, many managers say about referees. And in the last five games we did not play well, we didn't shoot the ball as many times at goal as before and that is my and my players' mistake.

'But I lost today because one goal is not a goal. I don't think they came here to deliberately make two mistakes against us. I don't want to say anymore about the referee but tomorrow or after tomorrow, I listen for some words. Offsides killed my team.'

Having identified shortcomings in his own team as well as the controversial decisions, Scolari will attempt to remedy them with work on the training pitch, beginning with a look upwards following a goal conceded to a header in Bordeaux and Emmanuel Adebayor's aerial presence involved in both Arsenal goals.

'In England, many teams play with high balls and we need to win these balls,' he said, before reporting:

'Today now when they arrive in the dressing room, and when they look at the first goal, the players are very angry.

'After we say something, they discuss and say look, this is one goal that we received but we did not play well enough to win.

'They know this, they understand this. Now I need to say okay, finish this game, we lost three points and now I have one week to learn from this game. I put maybe the same team against Bolton because I don't have injuries from today which is very good.

'I try to work in this week better than the weeks before and we will try to arrive many times in front of goal, as when we played three, four or five weeks' ago.'

Looking at the wider title race, with one point taken from home matches against Arsenal, Liverpool and Man United, Scolari's message will be a simple one.

'I need to say to my players that when we play them away, we need to win. But first I need to work this week.'

Have your say on today's events at Stamford Bridge by visiting Chelsea Chat.

The game can be watched in full on Chelsea TV from midnight.