'The owners are disappointed' - Pochettino

Cameron Smith

24 Sept 2023 17:35 BST
3 min read

Mauricio Pochettino, Chelsea — © ProShots

Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino has admitted “the owners are disappointed” following their 1-0 home defeat to Aston Villa on Sunday.

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The Blues dominated the ball, but Malo Gusto’s second-half red card ramped up the pressure and Ollie Watkins scored in the 73rd minute to condemn Chelsea to their third league defeat in just six games this season.

The west London club have now only won one of their opening six Premier League matches of the 2023-24 campaign and are languishing down in 14th place in the English top flight standings.

The loss to Villa takes Chelsea’s record in 2023 to seven wins, 10 draws and 18 defeats in all competitions, with the 3-0 victory over Luton Town their only win of the new season.

Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali have spent over €1 billion since taking over at Stamford Bridge in 2022, with €462.1m of that coming this summer.

However, Pochettino has been unable to find results, despite a promising pre-season, and Chelsea are closer to Burnley in 20th (four points) than they are to West Ham in seventh (five points). Manchester City are already 13 points clear of the Blues.

What has Pochettino said?

The former Tottenham Hotspur manager was asked about the owners’ thoughts during his post-match press conference after the defeat to Villa. “Yes, of course the owners are disappointed - but at the same time they need to support the plan,” he said.

Pochettino was then questioned about how to fix the lack of goals in Chelsea’s team and he replied: “We have the squad we have, we need to try to build the confidence and give them all of the support they need because they need to perform on the pitch.

“The performance is good, not excellent, but we are missing goals. I [will] start tomorrow again to prepare [for] the game on Wednesday and hope we can score [on] Wednesday.”

Chelsea host Brighton & Hove Albion in the third round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday. Kick-off is at 19:45 GMT.