Both Michail Antonio and Tom Cairney have expressed their disbelief at what Mauricio Pochettino said before Chelsea took on Arsenal at the Emirates on Tuesday.
It has certainly been a tough week for the Blues. Mauricio Pochettino‘s men missed out on a place in the FA Cup final thanks to a late Bernardo Silva goal for Manchester City.
And things got worse as they were then thrashed by Arsenal, with the Gunners scoring four times in the second-half to bring Chelsea back down to earth amid cautious suggestions that the Blues had started to turn a corner.
Of course, Chelsea had been dealt a blow ahead of the game with talisman Cole Palmer a doubt due to illness. And they did indeed end up facing their London rivals without the England international, who has scored 20 goals in the Premier League this season.
Mauricio Pochettino criticised for comments before Chelsea faced Arsenal
Mauricio Pochettino suggested ahead of the game that it was a chance for Chelsea’s other players to prove that they had not become Cole Palmer FC. Unfortunately, those comments would come back to haunt Pochettino, with Chelsea soundly beaten by Mikel Arteta’s side.
Speaking on The Footballer’s Football Podcast, both Michail Antonio and Tom Cairney insisted that it was such a bad piece of judgement from Pochettino to make that statement.
“What is crazy is the gaffer comes out and saying Cole Palmer FC, and then he gets ill, and this 5-0, it can’t be written any better than that,” Antonio said.
“I’m surprised he said that in his pre-match thing anyway to be fair. Are we Cole Palmer FC? I don’t think you can say that anyway. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Pep say when he had Messi, we’re just a Messi team,” Cairney added.
Blues boss probably learned a lot about his other players
In fairness to Pochettino, his Chelsea players gave a decent account of themselves in the first-half, particularly after going behind so early to a Leandro Trossard goal.
The Blues had chances to test David Raya before the break, but were unable to make the right pass at the crucial time. And that probably meant that the second goal was even more damaging when it did come.
It may have been that the Chelsea players had less belief that they could get back into the game from there due to not having Palmer in the team, but there is plenty of quality still in the side.
It probably was ill-advised from Pochettino to make those comments ahead of the game, but he is still learning about the mentality of a squad which has seen so many changes over the last few years.
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