Chelsea boss makes 'easy' Newcastle United claim after brutal £12m reminder

Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino ripped into his players after they suffered a 4-1 defeat to Newcastle United at St James' Park.

The Argentine was forced to watch from the stands as he served a touchline ban as his team succumbed to goals from Alexander Isak, Jamaal Lascelles, Joelinton and Anthony Gordon.

The Blues' heaviest defeats of the 2022-23 Premier League campaign as compounded by captain Reece James' sending off in the 73rd minute for two bookings.

"Even if Newcastle wasn't great, it was an easy win," said Pochettino. "To come here, Chelsea, and show it would be difficult for them to play to win the game and beat us. It was so easy the way that we conceded. The way we were soft in every single challenge, we did not show we were playing for something important.

"That is why it made me angry and disappointed. Even if we talk about being a young team, we need to learn. These type of games make me very, very, very, very, very angry because it is about showing more personality and character.

"Okay we are young but we can not miss this type of opportunity to show our best. We can not come from Tottenham, Man City, [where] around the world people praised Chelsea and then…’ok. I stop one step before, I don’t show the effort in the right moment. Ok no problem it is going to fix my teammate in behind’.

"That is a problem. We need to be more solid in this area. Mental of course and attitude, it is not attitude, it is about showing more strength in our mental game and be ready to compete. This is not the same as play football. I can play football, you can play football but to compete? I want to be ready to compete but today we didn’t."

Pochettino was also about Newcastle's substitutes bench in comparison to Chelsea's.

For context, the Magpies' bench, made up of three goalkeepers, four under-21s players, plus Matt Ritchie and Paul Dummett, cost £12million, whereas the visitors' was worth £233million, including the likes of Moises Caicedo, Mykhailo Mudryk and Noni Madueke

The Blues boss said: "That is about being mature and knowing that you can not see the opponent, you can not care about the opponent, you need to go and compete at your best. That is the problem, that today we didn’t show this capacity to compete. The team against us was a very good team.

"It is not about three keepers on the bench or not. It is about the way we competed so soft, we didn’t show we were competing for something very important."