Pochettino disappointed after derby draw but believes future is bright for Chelsea

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Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino admitted it felt like “two points dropped” after the 2-2 draw with Arsenal at Stamford Bridge.

After goals from Cole Palmer and Mykhailo Mudryk gave the hosts a 2-0 lead, Chelsea conceded twice in the space of eight minutes.

Pochettino said: “We’re disappointed, because I feel we played well but it’s two points dropped. It felt the game was closer to 3-0 than to 2-1 when they scored.


“We had the game under control against a good Arsenal team, but we are disappointed.

“Mistakes happen in football and we made many mistakes. When its 77 minutes and we make the mistake to allow Arsenal back into the game, I think this goal gave them the belief to come back.

“We are disappointed but at the same time I am very happy with the performance”.

Chelsea were cruising, with Palmer and Nicolas Jackson missing key chances to seal the game with a third goal, but a loose pass from goalkeeper Robert Sanchez presented Declan Rice an open net from 30 yards, gifting the Gunners back into the game.

Substitute Leandro Trossard then levelled the game six minutes from time, finishing at the back post unopposed after a delicious cross from Bukayo Saka.

Pochettino added: “Too many games we are watching other teams making mistakes. In football there are a lot of mistakes. We can criticise ourselves a little bit to recognise the situation, decide our tempo, the timing.

“At 77 minutes we can decide to take some risks because that is our ideology but maybe we should make better decisions, but also this is football and these things will happen.

“It’s not to blame someone but in this type of situation maybe we need to read better. This will arrive with time, recognising when to be calm and when to take risks as we still have a very young team.”

“We really believe we that we can do something very good going forward in the future.”