Chris Sutton has agreed with Gary Neville’s “bottlejob” assessment of Chelsea in their Carabao Cup final defeat to Liverpool on Sunday, describing Mauricio Pochettino’s side as “soulless” and “gutless” at Wembley.
The Blues arguably had the better of the game in normal time but were stunned by a late Virgil van Dijk header in the dying moments of extra time, having sat off Liverpool for much of the added period.
Pochettino admitted after the game that his players “felt penalties would be good for us” and Neville called his team the “blue billion pound bottlejobs”.
Speaking on Mail Sport’s It’s All Kicking Off podcast, Sutton said: “Chelsea seem to be a soulless club at this moment in time.
“Liverpool had half a team yesterday and Liverpool didn’t take their opportunity and then when all the kids went on, if you’re a Chelsea player at that moment, that should have been the moment when you thought ‘what an opportunity we have’, and yet they retreated and wanted penalties. That’s pretty gutless, that’s unforgivable.
“Chelsea finished the second half with the momentum, with the chances.
“At that particular moment when Liverpool were putting kid after kid on, the Chelsea team had far greater experience. This was an opportunity for them to think ‘let’s got for the jugular, let’s smell blood. What a great chance to transform our season and get people talking about Chelsea again’.
“Gary Neville used the word they ‘bottled’ it. It’s hard to disagree with that. They should have taken the game to Liverpool and been braver in that moment in time, and they didn’t. They were passive, they sat off, they wanted penalties! You couldn’t make that up.
“Pochettino coming out and saying they wanted penalties tells you everything you need to know [about] the difference in mentality at both clubs, and they are poles apart. It’s all about the action at that moment.
“When they went into extra time Chelsea should have felt empowered that Liverpool were putting on all these young players and thinking ‘we are never going to get a better opportunity’.”
Sutton’s co-host Ian Ladyman defended Chelsea’s tactics, insisting that no team is “gung-ho” in extra time, but Sutton wasn’t having it.
“They didn’t miss their chances in extra-time. They retreated, that’s what they did,” Sutton said.
“They didn’t seize the moment and that was their downfall. And that’s where Pochettino has the problem, because, who does the blame fall upon?
“You don’t take your leader off in that moment. Did Gallagher want to go off? Maybe he’s injured but surely you can see it through. I’m not buying it, the ‘knackered’ thing.”
