Chelsea’s Manager, Mauricio Pochettino, said it was difficult to explain the shocking 3-1 defeat against a 10-man West Ham side on Sunday in a London derby.
He admitted that Chelsea struggled to break down the David Moyes-led side, which handed them their first defeat of the season, which ensures that Chelsea sets gaze at a league opening win, having drawn their league opener last weekend.
Chelsea fell behind early in Sunday’s game through Nayef Aguerd’s header before goals from Michail Antonio, and a late Lucas Paqueta penalty cancelled out Carney Chukwuemeka’s equaliser.
As Chelsea did all they could to bounce back from 2-1 down, the woe of the evening was worsened after new £115m summer signing, Moises Caicedo, gave away a penalty on his debut.
Pochettino is, however, not deterred by the result of the two opening Premier League fixtures.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the match, Pochettino said, “That’s football. Teams like us, we need to get the right balance. I think today there were a few actions we didn’t manage well and we conceded.
“We created many chances and we did well in the first half. We should have won the game with our first half.
“In the second half with another isolated action we concede again. To find the space to create clear chances [is difficult] but overall, it is this type of game that is difficult to explain.
“You had the possession, you create and maybe you were the better side but in the end, you lose”.
In the second half, West Ham did everything possible to frustrate the Blues, and their defence was pretty hard on Chelsea’s attackers, while making good use of counters.
At the end, Pochettino said his players need to “believe in the process”.
Blues boss Mauricio Pochettino insisted after the match that his side needed to ‘believe in the process’.
West Ham goalkeeper, Alphonse Areola, was also at his best, saving a Blues penalty by Enzo Fernandez in the process, which really affected the visitor’s morale.
Pochettino said, “It was the frustration when we miss the penalty. We were playing well and we didn’t get the reward. We start the second half a little bit with this belief until we started again to play.
“We need to be more strong in this type of situation because we knew West Ham sit deep and counter-attack and set-pieces are really dangerous”.
