-
Mauricio Pochettino dismisses Chelsea’s struggles against nine-man Tottenham and admits hat-trick hero Nicolas Jackson
Mauricio Pochettino shrugged off Chelsea’s struggles against a nine-man Tottenham team and expressed his relief for hat-trick hero Nicolas Jackson.
The two London rivals were deadlocked at 1-1 at halftime, with a Cole Palmer penalty canceling out Dejan Kulusevski’s deflected opener. Jackson, the former Villarreal striker, had been enduring a frustrating night, but he came alive with 15 minutes remaining, putting Chelsea in the lead. Jackson went on to score two more goals in stoppage time, securing a morale-boosting 4-1 away win for Chelsea.
Despite Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie receiving red cards, Ange Postecoglou’s team put up a valiant fight and had opportunities, even with nine players, to salvage something from the match. However, Pochettino believed that Chelsea maintained control throughout the game and forced Tottenham to make mistakes.
When asked if the Blues should have put the game to bed sooner, the Argentine manager told reporters: “I think you are wrong. If you watch Tottenham versus Liverpool, they (Spurs) scored in the last minute. It’s never easy [against a team with] two players sent off. It’s difficult now to talk about tactics but most important is the 4-1 win and three points. I think we deserved to win. We forced them to make too many mistakes.
Tottenham was better in the first 15 minutes and then I think we bossed the game, our performance was good and forced them into making mistakes. If you look at everything you could see during the game, I think it was fair. It could be an important three points for us, to help us now start to push up the table.”
After Jackson joined the Blues in the summer for €35 million (£30 million/$38 million), he has battled with form. Pochettino is hoping that Jackson’s performance will relieve some of the strain on the striker. Before the late surge, the striker had only scored twice in his first nine Premier League games and had even missed a couple of golden opportunities against Tottenham.
“I am happy for him because we know that when strikers don’t score, they suffer,” the manager said. “So that is for people to think. He is really young, arrived to the club this summer, and it’s not easy to play for Chelsea. It’s the history, about winning, lifting trophies. That’s why as a coaching staff we need to provide the tools and be calm with the way we assess things. The confidence is there and I am so happy for him because he deserves the boost.”
Jackson got back on track just in time to score again, and he will look to do so when Chelsea play Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday.