Pochettino hails Sterling after derby win

Mauricio Pochettino praised Raheem Sterling’s ability to win penalties after a spot-kick secured Chelsea’s 1-0 win against Fulham in Saturday’s west London derby.

Cole Palmer converted from the spot in first-half stoppage time after Sterling was tripped by Issa Diop.

“It’s good for the team, a good performance today, the penalty and Palmer’s execution,” Pochettino said, joking that Chelsea “work on” the ability to win penalties in training.

“I’m so happy because he provides the team with good things and helped to achieve the three points that we needed and move up positions in the table.”

Pochettino also hinted that there was an incident ahead of kick-off that affected Chelsea’s performance.

“The first half wasn’t what we planned. Something happened before the game, I cannot explain, but it affected the team a little bit,” he said.

When pressed to further expand, he added: “It’s nothing big, small details that sometimes affect the team. All you need to know is something affected the performance, in my opinion, but it’s not important to our fans.”