Chelsea team leaks latest after Marc Cucurella's barber shared Cole Palmer injury news

• 

• Chelsea
• Chelsea News
• Chelsea press conference

Marc Cucurella's barber leaked crucial team news on social media in the hours building up to Chelsea's defeat to Brighton on Tuesday evening and Calum McFarlane has given his take on the incident

Calum McFarlane has called on his Chelsea team to drastically improve their performance levels - and quickly - ahead of this afternoon's FA Cup semi-final against Leeds United.

The Blues are on a dire run of form, losing seven of their last eight matches in all competitions, which led to Liam Rosenior losing his job as head coach on Wednesday. McFarlane, for the second time this season, has been tasked with stepping in on an interim basis, this time for the remainder of the campaign.

During his first spell, McFarlane was set the challenge of coming up against Pep Guardiola's Manchester City side, away from home, in his first-ever senior match. The 40-year-old, who has made the step up from academy football this season, impressed back then and earned a 1-1 draw thanks to a last-gasp Enzo Fernandez equaliser at the Etihad Stadium.

FOLLOW OUR CHELSEA FB PAGE! Latest Blues news, analysis and much more via our dedicated Facebook page

This time around, his first match is at Wembley against the Blues' historic rivals Leeds for a place in next month's FA Cup final. McFarlane has called on his deflated Chelsea squad to up their levels, starting this afternoon.

"Of course, everyone at the club has to feel responsible, staff and players," said McFarlane. "We need to, the players know that, staff and all that, we've spoken. We know the recent form has not been good enough and we're going to do absolutely everything we can and work as hard as we possibly can to make sure we can put in a good performance on Sunday and I think that's where it starts.

"I think a lot of football is about momentum and we obviously have had a bit of a losing streak. That can change with one positive result and one positive performance and what we're going to be able to do."

Marc Cucurella's barber leaked on social media that Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro were both absent before the defeat to Brighton earlier in the week. McFarlane has confirmed that situation has since been dealt with: "It has been addressed. It's been addressed previously. It's something that we are looking into and it needs to stop.

"We've spoken to them about the importance of that and making sure it doesn't happen again."

It is not the first time this has happened to Chelsea this season. Back in March, the Blues' line-up for their Champions League last-16 first leg against Paris Saint-Germain was leaked to French media in the build up to the match in Parc des Princes. Sources told football.london the next week that the situation, with the person responsible described as 'external', had been dealt with.