Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has praised his team for holding defending champions Manchester City to an entertaining draw on the eve of the November 2023 international break.
Chelsea have struggled in the 2023/24 season but have made sure to leave it all on the pitch when they have faced the league’s big teams so far. Draws with Liverpool and Arsenal were followed by a win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against Spurs and a thriller of a draw with Manchester City.
Pochettino’s team has arguably delivered the most interesting football this season with the 4-4 draw against City on Sunday 12 November 2023 being the most interesting one so far.
The eight-goal thriller was started by Manchester City and wrapped up by Chelsea thanks to a goal from former City man Cole Palmer. Former City stalwart, Raheem Sterling started the madness by giving Chelsea the lead – and celebrating – against his former club.
Pochettino, who kept up his tradition of giving fans exciting clashes with Guardiola, admitted that his team were the underdogs going into the clash, but praised them for showing character.
“I am very proud, so happy,” he said. “The players deserve the praise because the performance this evening was amazing. We faced a team that for me is the best team in the world. There were too many circumstances that happened during the game that made me very proud, because the way that we managed the game was really good.
“Of course there are always things to improve but it is a process. It is a journey where we want to build a project from zero. This type of experience and games are very important and will improve a lot our players and our team, but now we need to use it and translate into the future.
“We are still far away from where we want to be, but this is the process. That is a different moment during this period, but of course this type of performance we need to use for the future.
“We are going step by step, but maybe we can jump two steps. But we need caution because today was a massive motivation and the fans and the crowd were amazing supporting us.
“We showed the mentality, showed the character, showed also that we have the tools against a team like Manchester City to go for goals and to dominate and we have the capacity to create chances. I think today was really important.
“Like I said on Monday, maybe this is the starting point to start to build our confidence and believe more in the way that we are working. After today, now it is about translating into the way that we are going to compete in the future in this way.”
