Chelsea aim to excel in Champions League - the England star states

The talented playmaker says his team do not consider this campaign's Champions League as a "development phase" - as they intend to be competitive in it immediately.

The manager's side were beaten as they fell 3-1 to a veteran Bayern Munich at their home ground on the matchday.

It was the club's first outing in the tournament since last year - and the game highlighted a inexperienced side will need to learn on what it takes to succeed at that stage.

But manager the coach indicated his side can learn plenty from the setback and "create something great" - while winger Palmer has disputed the idea that they are unable to do that swiftly.

"The team are not coming here for it to be a learning curve," Palmer said. "The squad have demonstrated tonight we want to fight and we plan to do as well as we possible."

The club secured the CWC in the summer, overcoming PSG in East Rutherford, having lifted the UECL two months earlier, but the team's ex- forward the pundit always believed the UCL was going to be a tougher test.

"It was the type of display that I expected from them," Nevin said. "Many people were saying in advance that they were going to break into this league, they are Club World Cup champions and all of that, but I was thinking, 'hold on'. The gap you require to do to come to venues like this is pretty large and a group of members just haven't have that knowledge so far. They weren't able to do it as a team today."

Chelsea recognize flaws

The coach may have been mostly pleased with his team's showing, but accepted they missed "full attention for the full 95 minutes".

He added: "Believe the players were fully aware of this tournament, of the obstacles. You should not allow errors in the fashion we have made, but I just told to the players, it's a match that we can learn a lot from, and develop something special from this defeat."

Chelsea played decently, notably in the beginning when their attacker and the midfielder failed to convert great openings, but errors damaged them.

They lost focus at a set-piece, allowing the opposition winger Michael Olise unmarked to cross a ball that the defender guided into his net. Then anchor Moises Caicedo brought down Kane to offer a penalty - which the skipper scored.

After Palmer had scored a strike back, Harry Kane sealed the win in the later stage when full-back Gusto surrendered the possession.

They were all backline errors against clinical rivals. Munich - a team who have won in their opener in all of their past 22 Champions League editions - understand the challenges at this stage, in a manner the existing London team have yet to.

How can the team address their naivety?

Pat Nevin said: "It couldn't be quite veterans vs rookies, but Bayern Munich were clearly a significant distance ahead of Chelsea here. The blunders they did were quite naive and they were exposed, aside from for the goals, but for a whole raft of chances in addition to that. That's what occurs with young players playing in this tournament, but they will learn from that. The standard is highest. It is a jump. And that gap may require them a little while."

Inexperience may very have been an problem: In Munich, the side selected their very youthful recorded UCL team.

Their entire 24-man squad entered the fixture with merely 117 appearances in the league across them. In comparison, goalkeeper Neuer, 39, has played 131 times in the tournament for Bayern by himself.

His teammates the captain, the midfielder and the winger have substantial knowledge at this stage. Meanwhile, Blues players the midfielder and Marc Cucurella were earning their debuts in the event even though being within the team's star players.

Additionally manager the gaffer, previously in Pep Guardiola's staff during the Citizens' 2022-23 historic-winning season, may need to adapt to this standard.

It felt as if a additional German goal was likely for a several minutes before Harry Kane netted it - but the manager seemed slow to act, and merely brought on substitutions after his side had been 3-1 behind.

It was insufficient, all delayed.