Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has urged his players to believe in the process after they suffered a shocking 3-1 defeat against a 10-man West Ham on Sunday night, saying it was ‘difficult’ to explain the London derby defeat.
Pochettino admitted his Chelsea side struggled to break down David Moyes-led West Ham as they conceded their first defeat of the new season and yet to record a win as well.
The Blues fell behind early on through Nayef Aguerd’s header before goals from Michail Antonio, and a late Lucas Paqueta penalty cancelled out Carney Chukwuemeka’s equaliser.
But the miserable evening for the London Stadium visitors was made even worse when new £115m summer signing Moises Caicedo gave away a penalty on his debut.
However, Pochettino isn’t getting weighed down by the result despite the Blues are now without a win from either of their two opening Premier League fixtures.
Analysing Chelsea’s performance, Pochettino told Sky Sports after the match: “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 concede.
“We create 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.”
Chelsea were frustrated by David Moyes’ side for large periods of the second half as the hosts’ defence bullied Pochettino’s attackers and enjoyed success playing on the counter.
Blues boss Mauricio Pochettino insisted after the match that his side needed to ‘believe in the process’.
Enzo Fernandez missed a penalty with the scores level at 1-1 as his effort was well-saved by Hammers goalkeeper Alphonse Areola and Pochettino admitted the spot-kick effort deflated his side.
“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,” he said.
“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,” Pochettino added.
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