MAURICIO Pochettino has admitted Chelsea are not “matching the history” of the club – but he says it is unfair to compare this current Blues side to previous ones.
Chelsea will end the season without a trophy after their 1-0 defeat to Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, with Bernardo Silva’s goal six minutes from time settling the tie.
The FA Cup was one of seven major trophies Chelsea won in the last decade but despite an outlay of more than £1billion this team have suffered cup disappointment and will miss out on the Champions League places.
However, Pochettino was far from downbeat after the loss against Pep Guardiola’s double-double chasers.
“Now we are going to play on Tuesday against another very good team in Arsenal. We need to be ready. With the circumstances that have happened, maybe we cannot change too much but I think like Manchester City, they had no time to recover and feel 100 per cent, and the same for us on Tuesday,” Pochettino said. “But I feel happy with the way we are evolving. Of course I feel disappointed because we need to split two things, we think only in the history of Chelsea and the team are not matching the history of the club. We need to accept the team in a different way, not to compare it with Chelsea’s history.
“The evolution is good with all the circumstances. We need to be ambitious and think how we can be better next season. We need to finish well and strong this season.”
Chelsea were arguably shading the tie before Silva’s goal.
“Tactically, it is not a problem,” Pochettino said. “You cannot today be good and then the last eight months you didn’t know how to manage the tactical situation. It’s about the whole things. We need time to improve as a team. We need to assess after nearly ten months, in the way we are going to assess the group, the squad and then make the decision on how we can improve in different areas to be strong and compete better and better and better. And then we need to reduce the gap to Manchester City because it is clear they are one of the best teams in the world.”
There was one main moment of controversy when Palmer’s free-kick hit Jack Grealish’s hand, but the video assistant referee ruled out an offence.
“From the touchline, it was difficult to see if it was a penalty,” Pochettino said. “I was talking [to referee Michael Oliver] because after Jesus [Perez] and my staff said it was a penalty. I only said to him, ‘Why not go and check the penalty on the TV?’. I think from what I saw, [nods his head to indicate it was a penalty], but move on.”
