Daniel Farke defended his Norwich City side after setting an unwanted club record with an eighth consecutive league defeat on Tuesday night at Chelsea.

The relegated Canaries’ 1-0 Premier League loss at Stamford Bridge continued a depressing downward spiral, after demotion was confirmed at the weekend.

City paid for one defensive lapse in first half stoppage time when Olivier Giroud headed past Tim Krul from Christian Pulisic’s cross.

But Farke saw enough from his troops to feel they can end a wretched losing run in the final two top flight games.

“It is not a statistic anyone wants,” said Farke. “We will also probably finish with a record low number of points at this level as well. We can’t avoid this. It is disappointing and I feel sad for the lads. We deserved to break this curse of losses in this game. We tried everything in the last 10 minutes.

“I feel for them. It is a fact and we can’t change that we have had several losses in a row. We are not happy. I was angry after West Ham but if we perform like this I can’t complain too much.”

Farke felt his side pushed the Blues at Stamford Bridge.

“In terms of commitment, desire, defensive workload I thought it was a really good performance and of course we are upset we couldn’t get at least one point,” he said. “I am happy with the reaction after relegation and for that many compliments to my lads.

“We always have to be spot on and be there with a 100pc performance to be competitive. We need to stick together. It’s important in the final matches that we aren’t playing as individuals but looking for a team performance. Two days ago we were relegated, so these are not happy days but I am pleased with the reaction of my boys.

“We needed to stay absolutely compact – we were able to take all their movements and all their pace and quality.

“We spoke about a few tactical changes at half time and also to be a bit more brave, to press them a bit higher and we were able to do this in the second half but not with the 200pc chance we needed to score.”

Chelsea boss Frank Lampard was just happy to grind out a vital win in their bid to finish in the top four.

“At this stage of the season results are critical and we didn’t concede any chances of note to let them score. We were professional,” he said.

“I want more but that can wait. Where we are at as a team and where we are in the table it is all about the result. We didn’t give them anything to worry us.”