Mauricio Pochettino is satisfied with how his team played at the Etihad when they faced Manchester City in a match that could shape the rest of their season.
The Blues are in danger of finishing below the top 10 for the second consecutive season. This would mean a failure on the part of the club’s owners to build a system that can guarantee the club’s success and relevance in a fast-changing football world.
Pochettino, the one trusted to bring about that change and build that system, is now being looked at as a mistake. His career legacy is also under scrutiny.
A loss to Man City on Saturday would have been the straw that broke the camel’s back according to a few rumours. However, the Argentine delivered another classic match just as he did when they first came up against the Premier League’s defending champions earlier in the season. That match ended in a 4 – 4 draw at Stamford Bridge. Saturday’s ended in a 1 – 1 draw.
Chelsea were able to dominate City for a good spell in the game and also had luck on their side thanks to Erling Haaland’s poor finishing. The Blues were also victims of poor finishing themselves but in the end, a solid defensive performance was able to help them walk away from Etihad with a point and take them into the top 10.
Pochettino praised his team’s competitive spirit after the match and believes it will help them down the line.
“Today was a great performance,” said Pochettino to reporters after the game. “We scored first and the first half was a very good game. I’m so pleased and I told the players this and congratulate them because the effort was massive.
“The spirit we showed today is the way we want to compete. With the talent we have in all the areas, we will reach the level we expect. I’m so pleased because to play a team that is the best in the world is never easy, and today the character and personality the team showed made me very happy.”
“It’s not about our capacity to prepare for the game, it is about the players delivering the job and playing to the level that we showed. They showed character today. All the coaching staff work to prepare the plan for the game, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t work, but always football is a game that belongs to the players and today the execution and of course the performance was down to them.
“Football is not only about quality, It is about being competitive and today the team began to show that we can be competitive also and play well.”
Chelsea will take this as a boost in their preparations for the EFL (Carabao) Cup final against Liverpool next Sunday and hope that they can take the Reds on and come out victorious.
