Agent Arteta! Chelsea fans claim Arsenal boss is trying to keep Pochettino in a job

Robin Bairner

• 24 Apr 2024 07:10 BST
• 3 min read

Just how bad is the situation at Chelsea? If you listen to Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, he’d claim the Blues are doing just fine.

At least, that was his assessment after watching his team dismantle a poor Chelsea outfit 5-0 at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal ran riot in the second half of that encounter, scoring four goals while Martin Odegaard beautifully conducted play from the midfield with one of the performances of the season.

READ MORE: How much will it cost for Chelsea to sack Pochettino?

Mauricio Pochettino’s side, though, made it easy for their opponents. The defence was regularly split wide open, with little pressure on Odegaard in key areas of the park while the left side of their defence was raided against all too easily by Ben White.

After the game, Pochettino rated Chelsea’s performance as “so so bad”, yet Arteta was more complimentary about his counterpart when asked about the Argentine’s future.

READ MORE: What is Chelsea’s biggest loss of all time?

Arteta on Pochettino

“All the sympathy in the world in everything that Mauricio Pochettino has been through and is doing,” Arteta claimed.

“He’s doing a good job. They deserved to win all their last 7 matches.”

Chelsea fans, though, have not been so sympathetic to Pochettino’s cause – even claiming that Arteta is seeking to make his own job easier by keeper the Blues boss in his.

“Gaslighting & trying to make sure we don’t sack him. I know these games…” one Chelsea supporter pointed out on X in a comment liked over 1000 times.

Certainly, this has been another wretched season for Chelsea, who have spent record sums over the last 18 months yet appear destined to miss out on European football for the second season in succession.

The Blues are ninth in the Premier League, although they are just one point behind West Ham having played two fewer games. However, Pochettino was expected to challenge for the top four this term and Chelsea are an astonishing 19 points off that spot.