Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri reportedly refused to travel home from Bournemouth on the team coach after giving his players a dressing-down.
Sarri kept his squad in the away changing room at the Vitality Stadium for close to an hour following Wednesday's 4-0 thrashing.
The defeat was Chelsea's heaviest in the top flight since 1996 and saw them drop out of the top four of the Premier League, leading to questions being asked of the manager's tactics.
According to the Daily Mail, the former Napoli chief accused his players of ignoring his instructions and then decided against joining them on the team coach back to West London.
The publication suggests that the 60-year-old, appointed as Antonio Conte's successor last summer, may have made his own way back to the capital so that he could study why his tactics failed to work.
Sarri recently admitted that he is struggling to motivate his players, having lost two and drawn one of their last four league matches.
Daniel Lewis
