Ashley Cole faults Pochettino for Chelsea defeat

The defeat of Chelsea to West Ham United was a surprise that very few predicted on Sunday evening, and for former Chelsea left-back, Ashley Cole, the defeat was solely on new manager, Mauricio Pochettino.

According to the Chelsea legend, Pochettino got a key moment in the game wrong in the 3-1 hostilities at the London Stadium against the Hammers, which has to do with the Argentine’s substitutions while the Blues trailed to  a goal in the second half.

It was a 4 goal thriller that started with Nayef Aguerd opening the scoring for West Ham, with Chelsea midfielder, Carney Chukwuemeka leveling up for the Blues before half time.

Enzo Fernandez had the opportunity to put the Stamford Bridge side up ahead in the second half via a penalty but missed the spot kick that could have given the Blues the lead.

Mauricio Pochettino shortly to the second half, had Chukwuemeka substituted and replaced with Ukrainian, Mykhailo Mudryk following Chukwuemeka’s injury setback during play.

However, for Ashley Cole, that decision seemed to have cost Mauricio Pochettino the tie as minutes into the second half, Michail Antonio and Lucas Paqueta put the Hammers further up despite being a man down.

“Maybe the substitution [Carney off, Mykhailo on] caused an issue.

“They [Chelsea] lost a bit of impetus in the game. They were not getting the runs in behind between right-back and centre-back. It was all then too easy for West Ham,” Ashley Cole said to Sky Sports.

He added, “Pochettino will have understood the context behind the change but I felt they lost a bit of ability to drive beyond and cause West Ham a problem.”

Chelsea now have a point from the 2 games played so far, with their first point garnered against Liverpool on opening weekend.