Pochettino: ‘Blame us, not Wembley’

Ross Gibson
during the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea at Wembley Stadium on August 20, 2017 in London, England.

Mauricio Pochettino was keen to take the blame for his side’s 2-1 loss to Chelsea on Sunday, and wouldn’t allow the excuse of playing at Wembley to be used.

A Marcos Alonso double was enough to mean Michy Batshuayi’s own goal in the 82nd minute mattered for little in the end.

“I am disappointed because I think we deserved more,” Pochettino said post-match.

“Our performance was good. I am happy with the performance. We played a good game, created more chances.

“But they were clinical in front of goal. They shot twice and scored twice. For us, it was difficult to score.”

Pochettino wanted to make it clear that although there will be ‘talk’, his team are not fazed by playing at England’s national stadium, and will not pin the blame on defeat on anybody other than themselves.

“It doesn’t affect me. I understand that we need to talk, everyone needs to talk… but I think the ‘Wembley effect’ is not the reason we lost the game.

“The team played really well. It’s not fair to blame Wembley. For me, Wembley is one of the best places in the world, one of the best places to play football.

“I think today it was clear — if you love football and watch football, you will see that Wembley was not the problem. The size of the pitch? We played better and created chances to score.

“But that’s football. We have to accept they were more clinical than us in front of goal. The opportunities we created we didn’t score.

“But it’s only the beginning of the season, a lot of games are left to play. If we play that way, we’ll win a lot of games in the future.”