Mauricio Pochettino admitted he felt emotional after Chelsea secured a dramatic win over Manchester United at Stamford Bridge.
Cole Palmer scored twice deep into stoppage time, completing his hat-trick, to earn the Blues a thrilling 4-3 comeback win in west London.
Chelsea had been in control of a gripping game after taking a 2-0 lead through Conor Gallagher and a Palmer penalty, but Manchester United fought back to level before half-time.
Moises Caicedo’s mistake handed Alejandro Garnacho the first, before Bruno Fernandes nodded in a second to restore parity.
The Red Devils completed a turnaround after the break as Garnacho scored his second, following fine work and an exceptional cross from Antony.
The game looked to be drifting away from Chelsea, until Diogo Dalot bundled over Noni Madueke to concede a penalty. Palmer kept his cool to convert in the 110th minute, before firing in a sensational winner 82 seconds later as United switched off from a set-piece.
“Of course I enjoyed it,” Pochettino reflected on a pulsating night of Premier League football.
‘It was amazing because I was thinking we deserved it, we were the better team today. It was fair when we scored in the last minute.
“We started the game really well and at 2-0 for us the game was under control. Then we made a mistake and we suffered a big emotional impact. It wasn’t easy to deal with this.
“In the second half again we controlled the game and we conceded in transition. Of course the way we conceded the three goals was disappointing because I think we should be better in these types of situations. But if you analyse the game I think it was a fair result, three points for us.
“And to finish in the way that we finished, for the connection between our players and fans, it was a very good thing that happened for us tonight and it should be a turning point for the team and the fans to have trust in each other.”
Pochettino celebrated wildly with his coaching staff after Palmer’s hat-trick goal sealed the win and the Argentine admitted he felt ’emotional’ after an up-and-down debut season at Stamford Bridge.
“It was very emotional at the end because of the way it happened and it felt really unfair when we were losing. The feeling was not so good because we were thinking why we were losing the game.
“Football is like this, but until the end we always kept believing. When we scored the equaliser we were saying to our players that there was still two minutes and we believed that we could still score the winning goal.
“I am so happy because the end was of course emotional, because we won the game like this and got three points. For us it was really important because it was a must-win game if we wanted to reduce the gap to the teams above us. The three points today was so important.”
