Mauricio Pochettino played down Chelsea’s chances of qualifying for Europe and said the club has been “talking too much this season” after the Blues were hammered 5-0 at Arsenal in the Premier League.
Leandro Trossard capitalised on a sluggish start from the visitors to fire Arsenal ahead in the fourth minute and, after Chelsea hit a post during the first half through Nicolas Jackson, Kai Havertz and Ben White each scored twice after the break to seal their side’s largest ever win in the fixture.
“It’s a difficult result,” said Pochettino, who shook his head on the bench at times during the drubbing.
“It’s a difficult performance. It’s not nice to see your team playing like this from the beginning of the game, when you’re supposed to have full energy.”
Read our other football news stories here:
Giroud ‘to join LAFC’
Bowen on England and Southgate
Wolves injury problems ease
Chelsea had far more chances in their FA Cup semi-final against title contenders Manchester City on Saturday before losing to Bernardo Silva’s 83rd-minute goal.
Pochettino said he could not understand how his players had looked so lacklustre three days later but did not put their display solely down to the absence of top scorer and player of the season Cole Palmer.
Cole Palmer injury ‘difficult’
“That is inconsistency, three days after playing fantastically against Manchester City,” he rued.
“When you lose a creative player who helps to link all the lines of the team, it makes the management very difficult.
“We didn’t compete in the way we needed to”
Mauricio Pochettino reflects on Chelsea’s 5-0 defeat to Arsenal…
🎙️ @julesbreach pic.twitter.com/lOVgzBE4A7
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) April 23, 2024
“We need to compete in a different way but we are talking too much this season. It is enough to talk… if we want to be in a different position, we need to take decisions.
“It is difficult to talk about the objective. Do we deserve to go to Europe [playing] in this way? No.”
Chelsea are three points behind Manchester United, who occupy the seventh position which is likely to guarantee continental football next season.
Their next two matches are away to fourth-placed Aston Villa and at home to fifth-placed Tottenham.
