Chelsea fans have called for the dismissal of manager Mauricio Pochettino after the Blues suffered a humiliating 5-0 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
The Gunners took an early lead through Leandro Trossard before second-half braces from Ben White and Kai Havertz sealed a comprehensive victory for Mikel Arteta’s side.
The result leaves Chelsea in 10th place in the Premier League table, well outside the European qualification places. It is the latest in a series of poor results under Pochettino, who has struggled to improve the team’s form since taking over from Graham Potter in September.
Fans have taken to social media to express their anger and frustration, with many calling for the Argentine to be sacked. One fan wrote: “A sackable offense. One of the worst and most damning losses in the history of Chelsea Football Club. If the owners and the sporting directors don’t sack Pochettino today, tomorrow, or later this week, then I’m not sure they have the club’s best interest [sic] at heart.”
Another added: “I’ve been in Pochettino’s defence a lot this season with the fact that the squad was not good enough but this result today was inexcusable. He can get the sack and while we’re clearing house take all these players with you bar [Cole] Palmer, [Reece] James and [Malo] Gusto.”
A third fan said: “Any serious club sacks Pochettino tonight. If they wanted a project, they wouldn’t have sacked [Graham] Potter after a few months. Poch has done much worse than Potter, so why does he deserve more time? Especially when Potter actually is a project manager and Poch isn’t.”
Pochettino admitted after the game that his team had been “outclassed” by Arsenal and that he takes full responsibility for the defeat.
“I think we started the game not so well,” Pochettino said in his post-match interview with TNT Sports. “We concede the goal and then it was difficult for us to recover from this goal.
“I think in the first half we compete after 10, 15 minutes. We could not approach the game like we started in the first half and we didn’t compete the way we needed to compete and then when they scored the third it was easy for Arsenal to control the game.
“I think you need to be clinical. Like against Manchester City three days ago, we were not clinical and then today the same thing happened.
“Difficult performance because it is not nice to see your team play like this when you are mean to have full energy. After three days when you play a fantastic game against Manchester City, today we are disappointed with the performance.”
It remains to be seen whether Pochettino will be given the opportunity to turn things around at Chelsea. However, the pressure is mounting on the Argentine and another poor result in the coming weeks could see him lose his job.
