Roy Hodgson is to sift through the aftermath of his first defeat as West Bromwich Albion manager to ensure the Baggies cement their place in the Premier League for next season.

Hodgson's six-match unbeaten run since taking charge at The Hawthorns in February finally came to an end on Saturday as Albion suffered a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Chelsea.

In terms of a baptism of fire, Hodgson could not have anticipated a sterner run of games as Albion's first four at home under his stewardship have been against bitter local rivals Wolves as well as Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea.

Up until the weekend setback, Albion had taken five points from a possible nine at home and 12 from 18 overall to haul themselves clear of the relegation zone.

With five matches remaining the gap to the bottom three is now six points, so undoubtedly there is still work to do.

It is why Hodgson has no intention of allowing himself or his players to sit back and think 'Well, it was Chelsea we lost to.'

"I don't think we should ever get to a stage where we are happy to absorb any defeat," said Hodgson.

"We should be analysing why we lost, where we went wrong and where we could have done better.

"We should also look at what we didn't do in this game that we've perhaps done in so many other games, and to make certain we get back on track.

"We've played Liverpool and Arsenal here, two sides in very good form.

"So I don't think we should be sitting back and thinking it doesn't matter simply because it was Chelsea.

"Overall, though, I don't think we can have any complaints about the fact we lost because Chelsea were obviously clearly better than us on the day."

That was not the case up until the halfway point of the first half as Albion deservedly led courtesy of Peter Odemwingie's 12th goal of the season in the 17th minute.

But as soon as Chelsea equalised via Didier Drogba five minutes later, the remainder of the game proved to be predominantly one-way traffic.

Further first-half goals from Salomon Kalou and Frank Lampard made it 3-1 before the break, a scoreline Albion were fortunate was not made more emphatic before the final whistle.

Albion defender Jonas Olsson is adamant the club's off day was not as a result of anyone within the squad believing the club were safe following their magnificent run under Hodgson.

"Everyone in this country who follows football knows that 39 points might not be enough this year," said Olsson.

"So we will try to kick on until we're hopefully on safe ground, and whether that's 40 or 45 (points) or whatever, I don't really care.

"We just need to make sure we keep the distance, which is six points now.

"We don't want to go into the last few games with the knife on our throats, so we will definitely remain humble enough to make sure we get some more points."