Mauricio
Pochettino called on his Chelsea players to collectively "grow up" after the
1-0 defeat to Aston Villa condemned them to their worst top-flight start in
45 years.
Pochettino will now be without his starting striker Nicolas Jackson, who
picked up a fifth yellow card in just his sixth Premier League game to earn
himself a one-match suspension, and Malo Gusto after the Frenchman's red
card against the Villans.
But the wider squad have now failed to score in three straight games and the
poor run has left the Blues 14th in the Premier League, with their meagre
five-point haul after six games their worst return since 1978.
Pochettino said: "We need to grow up as a team, not only in an individual
way. A player like Nicolas is so young and is feeling his way into the
Premier League and learning.
"He needs time, and in this type of game we are competing and want to win.
But the players, when they are young, need to learn with experience and when
they make a mistake.
"That is why we feel disappointed because we are paying too many situations
like this. Things like this is another small detail and, in the end, we are
losing the game. We are in a situation we need to change as soon as
possible.
"It is the players' responsibility. We cannot blame the VAR or the referee.
In this situation, we need to act different in a different way. I'm not
going to blame or say anything against Malo Gusto because, sometimes, some
situations happen in football. This type of situation affected the game and
the team in a negative way.
"It's about learning, it is all a process. We are a young team that is in a
process, they need to learn altogether. It's difficult to talk about
positives when you lose but I think we need to talk about positive things.
"No doubt in time, the team is going to perform, but we cannot hide the
situation that disappoints all of the fans, the club as well as us and the
players."
Chelsea are the league's worst underperformers relative to their expected
goals tally, having drawn a blank in consecutive games against Nottingham
Forest, Bournemouth and now Aston Villa.
Only Burnley and Luton have scored fewer league goals this season, while
even dating back to last season the Blues have netted only 14 times in their
last 16 games.
"Work," said Pochettino on how to improve their fortunes in the final third.
"Giving trust and then confidence. We have the squad we have, we cannot
change anything.
"The owners feel disappointed, they are excited to build a project so they
are disappointed, but they need to support the plan.
"We will try to build confidence and give them all the support they need
because they need to perform on the pitch. The performance is good, I'm not
going to say it's excellent, but we are missing being clinical in front of
goal.
"We need to keep going and working. I cannot find another solution, we will
start again tomorrow to build the confidence and trust and hope we can score
on Wednesday."
Emery: Three points important for PL
balance
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery was pleased that his side showed more
defensive solidity than they have done in previous Premier League game this
season.
Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez was also needed to make a string of key saves
against a misfiring Chelsea, with Emery hailing the three points - courtesy
of Ollie Watkins' 73rd-minute goal - as important for their "balance" in the
league as they compete on multiple fronts.
He told Sky Sports: "For us, it's very important in the beginning to try to
keep being consistent in the Premier League. We needed to be stronger than
we were against Newcastle and Liverpool.
"Today was a tough match, but we competed very well. We tried to start at
the beginning with control of the ball and defensively, being stronger and
we did it.
"They had some chances, we needed the goalkeeper, but at the end, we had our
chances to score. When we had one player more, we tried in those moments
being offensive to try to make the difference and we did.
"Then we kept the result, kept possession and tried to score a second goal.
It's difficult to win here and through clean sheets, through a struggle
sometimes and through the goalkeeper saving us.
"Those three points are very important for us to try to keep the balance in
the Premier League and keep the balance after playing in the Europa
Conference League.
"But we are building the team, there is still work to do, but today was good
to use different players. We need to add the players and build a stronger
squad, then try to keep it going forward, working on the things we have to
improve.
"It's always important for the striker (Watkins) to score. I am very happy
because he is working with big behaviour, commitment to his team-mates is
amazing. If he's scoring, it's better for us and him."
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