2024 maybe only 12 days old but already we might have the strangest football story of the year after Chelsea pair Moises Caicedo and Mauricio Pochettino tried to claim that Brighton lost to Middlesbrough last season.
Blues boss Pochettino was speaking to the media ahead of Chelsea hosting Fulham at Stamford Bridge. The gathered journalists were not so much interested in that upcoming West London Derby as what happened at the Riverside Stadium in midweek.
Despite spending over a billion pounds on players in 12 months to assemble the most expensive squad in football history, Chelsea were beaten 1-0 by a Middlesbrough side sitting 12th in the Championship.
There have been plenty of embarrassing results for the Blues since Todd Boehly arrived at Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2022. This one in a League Cup semi final was arguably the most damning/hilarious of the lot.
In an attempt to justify the humbling defeat on Teesside, Pochettino opted for the Boris Johnson approach of straight up lying and hoping nobody notices.
“Caicedo was telling me his Brighton lost there last season,” said the Blues boss whilst keeping a straight face.
“Many Premier League teams when they play there do lose. But we are still alive and will fight again to be in the final when at Stamford Bridge.”
What actually happened at the Riverside last season of course is Brighton won 5-1 to ease through the third round of the FA Cup. The Albion would go all the way to the semi finals at Wembley.
Alexis Mac Allister scored twice from the bench in the second half on his first Brighton appearance since becoming a World Cup winner with Argentina.
Adam Lallana and Pascal Gross were on target in the opening 45 minutes with the rout rounded off late on by Deniz Undav. Former Albion loan striker Chuba Akpom provided the Middlesbrough goal.
As for Caicedo? Well, he played the entire 90 minutes. The only way you can suffer a memory loss so severe as to remember a 5-1 victory as a defeat is to drink in excess of 11 pints of Belgian Trappist Beer.
Your correspondent speaks from first hand experience, having no recollection of an 11-hour period from a trip to Gent in 2020 which resulted in a lost phone as well as a lost mind.
Nobody could blame Caicedo if he has turned to 17.5% lagers since joining Chelsea. The most expensive player in British football history has not lived up to his £115 million price tag, drawing the ire of Blues fans.
It is almost as if Brighton create an environment where individuals thrive whilst Chelsea is a toxic, self-entitled club were the belief is money trumps anything else.
Marc Cucurella, Graham Potter, Caicedo and to a lesser extent Robert Sanchez have all seen their stock plummet after swapping the Amex for Stamford Bridge.
Evan Ferguson, take note should the rumours about a summer bid from Chelsea for your services turn out to be true.
Whether Caicedo did indeed tell Pochettino that Brighton were defeated by Boro or whether the Blues manager made the whole thing up himself, we may never know. Either way, Pochettino could have checked his facts before going and making himself look very silly.
What we do know is it has heaped further humiliation on Chelsea, Pochettino and Caicedo. Imagine having to invent a Brighton result from 12 months ago to try and explain why you have just lost at Middlesbrough.
Chelsea Football Club – the gift that keeps on giving.
