Mauricio Pochettino has provided an explanation for the events that occurred after Chelsea’s disappointing loss to Middlesbrough.
During the match, the away fans at the Riverside Stadium had nothing to celebrate as the Blues delivered yet another poor performance.
Hayden Hackney’s goal in the first half sealed the victory for Middlesbrough, leaving Chelsea’s forwards once again failing to impress.
However, it was Chelsea’s experienced player, Thiago Silva, who approached the fans at the end of the game. It seemed that he was apologizing to them after a heated exchange initially took place.
The Blues manager did not see the confrontation but understood fans’ anger, addressing Sky Sports after the match: “I didn’t see. I cannot say anything about that. We understand why our fans would be disappointed by that, but there’s still 90 minutes to play.”
Silva, who has achieved great success at the club level, has expressed his dissatisfaction with Chelsea’s performance this season on multiple occasions. One instance was after a close 3-2 victory over Luton in December, where Chelsea almost lost their three-goal lead in the final minutes. Silva was visibly upset and forcefully pushed the TV cameras away. Although he downplayed his actions afterwards, it is clear that morale within the Chelsea team is currently low.
In a surprising turn of events, Middlesbrough became the first non-top-tier team to defeat Chelsea in any domestic cup competition since January 2015. This ended Chelsea’s 28-game winning streak against lower-tier teams, with Bradford being the last team to achieve such a victory with a 4-2 win at Stamford Bridge.
Blues had a fortunate 4-0 victory against Preston over the weekend, and they barely managed to secure three points at Kenilworth Road in their previous match.
All attention will be focused on Chelsea’s upcoming Premier League match against Fulham at home on Saturday, followed by the Carabao Cup return fixture in two weeks.
