As the half time whistle blew yesterday, Mauricio Pochettino must have been despairing about this project he has at Chelsea.
Just a couple of minutes before, his side were 2-0 up and cruising. Then they concede a silly goal and pick up a red card just moments before half time. The Argentine won’t have had long to think of what to say, but according to his comments after the game in the press conference, he was very clear with them.
It’s an important victory for us because after Newcastle we needed to show a different face and the response was very good. I told the players at half-time [after Gallagher’s red card], this is a massive opportunity and challenge for us to show we are a real team.
“We competed really well, we scored another goal with one less, and then we won the game, so we are happy and we need to use this kind of victory to try to build our confidence.”
In the end we got the job done, and he’s right, they did prove a lot to us and to themselves by making sure they got 3 points. In a season that’s been full of moments where they look shaky, they came up big in these moments and played a very mature game.
It required patient defender and judicious attacking, as well as strong character from leaders like Thiago Silva and Enzo Fernandez. Good work all around
