Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino gave two reasons for why his side lost so comprehensively to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night.
Leandro Trossard opened the scoring for the Gunners just three minutes after kickoff, before Ben White and Kai Havertz each grabbed a second-half brace to make it 5-0 and complete a torrid night for the visitors.
Pochettino believes his players failed to reach the pitch of the game, making it too easy for their opponents.
“I think we started the game not so well,” he told TNT Sports. “We concede the goal and then it was difficult for us to recover from this goal. I think in the first half we compete after 10, 15 minutes.
“We could not approach the game like we started in the first half and we didn’t compete the way we needed to compete and then when they scored the third it was easy for Arsenal to control the game.”
Chelsea did have their chances to score, racking up 1.61 expected goals from seven shots, but Pochettino lamented their inability to finish, a problem that has plagued them so often this season.
“I think you need to be clinical,” he asserted. “Like against Manchester City three days ago, we were not clinical and then today the same thing happened.
“Difficult performance because it is not nice to see your team play like this when you are meant to have full energy.
“After three days when you play a fantastic game against Manchester City, today we are disappointed with the performance.”
The result is a major blow to Chelsea’s hopes of qualifying for Europe next season. They currently sit ninth in the Premier League table with 47 points after 32 games.
