Chelsea coach Mauricio Pochettino admitted after Tuesday’s 0:5 debacle in the London derby at Arsenal that his team can’t think about cup positions with similar performances. The “Blues” are ninth in the English league before the end of the season and are in danger of missing out on Europe twice in a row for the first time since the 1995/96 and 1996/97 seasons.
Chelsea suffered their heaviest defeat against Arsenal in the 29th round play-off. Leandro Trossard sent the Gunners into the lead in the fifth minute, and after the change of sides, Ben White and former Blues player Kai Havertz scored twice.
“When we succeed, we can beat anyone. But when we fail, we are very bad.” said Pochettino at the press conference. “We can’t keep up our performance, that’s why we’re where we are in the table. We put in a great performance against Manchester City on Saturday and three days later we’re playing like this.” reminded the Argentinian coach of the semi-final of the English Cup, in which his team lost to the favorite 0:1.
Despite the big purchases, Chelsea did not manage to return to the elite even in the second season under new owner Todd Boehly.
“Now we are very disappointed with the result, so it is difficult to talk about the rest of the season and any goals. Do we deserve to go to the European Cups? Not with such performances.” Pochettino told TNT television after the Arsenal match.
Depending on the result of the FA Cup, up to seven teams from the Premier League can go through to the European Cups. Chelsea are three points behind sixth-placed Newcastle and seventh-placed Manchester United, all three teams have six games left in the season. The big London club already plays on the field of fourth-placed Aston Villa on Saturday, and in the next round they have another derby at home against fifth-placed Tottenham, which Pochettino led between 2014 and 2019.
Table
1
Arsenal F.C
34
24
5
5
82 : 26
77
2
Liverpool FC
33
22
8
3
75 : 32
74
3
Manchester City
32
22
7
3
76 : 32
73
4
Aston Villa
34
20
6
8
71 : 50
66
5
Tottenham Hotspur
32
18
6
8
65 : 49
60
6
Newcastle United
32
15
5
12
69 : 52
50
7
Manchester United
32
15
5
12
47 : 48
50
8
West Ham United
34
13
9
12
54 : 63
48
9
Chelsea F.C
32
13
8
11
61 : 57
47
10
Brighton & Hove Albion
32
11
11
10
52 : 50
44
11
Wolverhampton Wanderers
33
12
7
14
46 : 53
43
12
Fulham F.C
34
12
6
16
50 : 54
42
13
AFC Bournemouth
33
11
9
13
48 : 60
42
14
Crystal Palace
33
9
9
15
42 : 56
36
15
Brentford FC
34
9
8
17
52 : 59
35
16
Everton F.C
33
10
8
15
34 : 48
30
17
Nottingham Forest
34
7
9
18
42 : 60
26
18
Luton Town
34
6
7
21
47 : 75
25
19
Burnley F.C
34
5
8
21
37 : 69
23
20
Sheffield United
33
3
7
23
31 : 88
16
Tags: Pochettino furious debacle Arsenal dont deserve advance European Cups