Mauricio Pochettino has joked that Chelsea owner Todd Boehly would have killed him if he’d left Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo out of his team to face Arsenal over the weekend.
The Blues threw away a two-goal lead against their London rivals after goals from Cole Palmer and Mykhaylo Mudryk saw Pochettino’s side go 2-0 up on 48 minutes.
But Arsenal roared back to rescue a share of the spoils with Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard scoring late on to keep Mikel Arteta’s side level on points with new leaders Manchester City and deny Chelsea their fourth win in a row.
Internationals Caicedo and Fernandez both started against Arsenal – who spent a good chunk of cash in the summer – on Saturday after flying back from South America on Wednesday and Pochettino claims it was “really tough” to expect them to play over the weekend.
Pochettino told reporters: “It’s crazy for players to come back from South America on Wednesday and play on Saturday.
“But if I say ‘OK, I’m going to give them a rest’ you [the media] will kill me, for sure if they don’t play – and the owner also!
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“Today Caceido and Enzo arrived after two games in America and they were not fresh. But they are important plasters for us.
“It’s really tough to arrive like that. I hope now they can recover and train and in one week be at their best.”
Pochettino refused to publicly criticise Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez for his howler which gifted Rice the opportunity to get Arsenal’s first goal back.
Speaking after the match which has left Chelsea tenth in the Premier League, Pochettino added: “We didn’t have the facility to have all our squad available and then to pick the starting 11. That is another thing you need to put in your analysis.
“Then look at the form of the players that we had because they came from injuries. Reece James had 15-20 minutes and now he needs time recover his best.
“Maybe one criticism of us was maybe we need to take better decisions in 77 minutes not to concede in the way that we did. We gave our opponent the confidence, momentum and the belief to say ‘come on, go’ because it was possible with only one goal difference.
“The situation is to live together and improve together and for sure the team has the talent to do that.”
