Chelsea have set up a date with Manchester City after fighting off Leicester City with two late goals to secure a semi-final ticket in the Emirates FA Cup.
The Blues went into the break two goals up thanks to Marc Cucurella and Cole Palmer, but defender Axel Disasi halved their lead in the 51st minute with an own goal before Stephy Mavididi equalised in the 62nd.
The Foxes, who were the visitors on the afternoon, held on to force extra-time thanks to the new FA Cup rules that effectively rule out replays. However, Chelsea came back in added time through Carney Chukwuemeka and Noni Madueke to win the tie by four goals to two.
Pochettino, who has received a lot of flak for his handling of the club this season, is now making a case for why the club must be patient with his methods. Chelsea have been on the rise in recent weeks although many of their matches show that there is much to be achieved.
This win, however, has been dedicated to the players by the manager and he has called on everyone to do the same. Pochettino also stated that his cub deserve to be back at Wembley, after the disappointment of losing the EFL (Carabao) Cup final to Liverpool few weeks ago.
“Yes, it was harder [than it needed to be]. If we scored with all the chances we created in the first half I think the game would have been finished after 45 minutes. But we missed too many chances,” the Argentine manager began.
“Then conceding [the first goal] in the way we did had an emotional impact. That is the magic of the FA Cup – as we saw yesterday with Coventry and that is football. But we fully deserve to be in Wembley and we will now go back to Wembley.
“We are in the FA Cup semi-final, so we are going twice at the moment but hopefully three times (including the final) we can go.
“But I think this group of players deserve great credit and also the staff. In the circumstance of the beginning of the season, to go twice and fight for cups twice, is massive.
“We scored five today with the goal of Axel as well,” added Pochettino, laughing. “I think we need to find a collective balance because we have great offensive players.
“They also need to think about defensive actions. There are two phases in football, one with the ball and one without the ball, and when we concede goals it is not only about the goalkeeper or the defensive line.
“We cannot at the moment find this balance. We have young players who need to be more mature and have more energy when we go to press and run backwards.
“That is the reality and that is why it is difficult to find consistency. We need to fix that with time and find the balance in this aspect.”
