Chelsea head coach Mauricio Pochettino has taken his share of the blame for the club’s recent decline but also called on his players to take responsibility.
The Blues were humbled by Wolves on Sunday afternoon, succumbing to a 4-2 loss at Stamford Bridge. The result leaves Chelsea in the bottom half of the Premier League table, dropping to 11th and being overtaken by Gary O’Neil’s side in the process.
Disgruntled Chelsea fans chanted the name of former owner Roman Abramovich during the defeat, while players were booed off at half-time and full time. Raheem Sterling was also targeted with jeers upon being substituted and supporters close to the dugout hurled insults at Pochettino.
When asked in his post-match press conference if Chelsea’s players are good enough to compete for a top-four or top-six spot, Pochettino replied: “I think we are all not good enough. At the moment, that is the reality. I think myself is the first person responsible for this situation. What we were showing today, we are not good enough, I agree with you 100%.
“I think we didn’t manage the situation properly, and of course no one can be safe. I don’t want to come here and say ‘I am the best and the players are the worst’. I think we are all responsible, even the players take responsbility like I take it.
“We are not reflecting and we are not matching the history of the club, that is true. We need to accept and we need to be critics, but we cannot give up. We keep working and will work really hard to try to change, maybe to try things in a different way. Maybe if it’s not working this way, we need to move on and find different types of solution.”
He added: “The most important thing now is to feel the responsibility, we need to accept the organisation and the players we have, and to understand the fans is important. We want to apologise and say sorry.
“If we want to take good results in the future, we need to stay together.”