Chelsea crashed to a narrow defeat against Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday, and Mauricio Pochettino had his say.
Mauricio Pochettino saw his side get reduced to ten men after Malo Gusto picked up a red card in the second half. Ollie Watkins scored the only goal of the game in the second half to seal a vital away win for Aston Villa over Chelsea.
Pochettino has now urged his team to show more composure and maturity in difficult situations. Meanwhile, striker Nicolas Jackson picked up his fifth booking in the Premier League as well, which has now resulted in a one-game ban.
AS relayed by Chelsea’s official website, Pochettino suggested that Chelsea will need to grow up as a team and that the players are still learning to deal with the pressure of the Premier League.
“We need to grow up, as a team, not only as individuals. Nicolas is so young and he’s still feeling the Premier League. He’s learning, I think he needs time. In this type of game, we are competing and want to win, and football is hard to win. But also players when they are young need to learn with experience and make mistakes.”
On the red card, he added, “It was in front of me but I didn’t see it, so I cannot say it wasn’t a red card. We need to trust the referee and the VAR and we cannot go back and change the decision, we need to accept that.”
“It’s the player’s responsibility, we cannot blame the referee or the VAR. In this situation we need to act in a different way. I’m not going to blame or say anything against Malo Gusto, because sometimes these situations happen in football, but of course the situation affected the team and the game in a negative way.”
Chelsea have made a disastrous start to the Premier League campaign, picking up just one win. They have now lost home games against teams like Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa. The Blues should be beating these teams at home, and these results will certainly deflate the fanbase and the players.
A team of their stature is expected to compete for major trophies, and it remains to be seen whether they can finish in the Champions League positions. Chelsea had a disappointing 2022/23 campaign as well, and they finished 12th in the league table. It will be interesting to see if the Blues can gain experience from these setbacks and learn from their mistakes in the coming weeks.
Chelsea have a talented squad, and they have a top-class coach like Mauricio Pochettino who has proven himself in the Premier League with Tottenham and Southampton in the past. The fans will certainly hope that the players can bounce back strongly and produce a statement performance in the coming weeks.
