What Mauricio Pochettino said in the press conference on West Ham loss, Chukwuemeka, Caicedo and more

On Sterling’s performance

We were talking a lot this week in my office. He’s a player that can deliver. Today he was fantastic. For sure, he’s not happy because we didn’t win. But this is the way we expect the players to perform.

On psychological issues affecting his squad

No. I don’t see nothing like this, for sure.

On Chukwuemeka

We will see tomorrow. He is being assessed by the doctor.

On goal scoring problem

This is a new team, new players. I think it’s a lot to believe, players like Nico Jackson, he is for sure going to score because he has amazing quality. I don’t believe that happened because of what happened last season.

On not matching first-half levels

Half-time, we were upset about the start of the game. We conceded a few situations and we were aware of that. But we changed Carney for Misha and from the beginning also, we started late. Then we conceded the second goal and that helped West Ham to really believe in the result.

On his young side

If we had scored the penalty, we go to half-time with 2-1. We would be talking about playing a different game, a different situation.

On Caicedo’s debut

When we took the decision to play with him for the last 30 minutes, it’s because he’s ready to play. He did well, very positive things. You cannot say it was very wrong. He will be disappointed, we are all disappointed because I think we deserved more.

Pochettino on the game

I don’t believe we can attribute it to mentality. In football we need to accept that the situation happened. The first-half was really good. I’m disappointed and the players are really disappointed about how we conceded the first goal. We know how dangerous West Ham are from set-pieces.

Pochettino on Chukwuemeka

Speaking to Sky Sports, Mauricio Pochettino said:

Now we need to assess him, tomorrow. See what happened with his knee. It was really bad luck.

Chukwuemeka injury

Carney Chukwuemeka limped off the pitch just before half-time, moments after firing in his first goal for the club.

Mauricio Pochettino is set to be asked a question or two on the 19-year-old midfielder, who looked in some discomfort.

Mauricio Pochettino’s key decision to make

Enzo Fernandez’s penalty miss just before halftime proved costly for the Blues, whose first-half dominance wouldn’t carry over into the second period of the game.

It was the first penalty miss of the Argentinian’s career but it seemed to spawn a second-half where Chelsea looked like all creative flow had ceased to exist within them following Michail Antonio’s goal early on.

It’s unclear if Chelsea boss Pochettino will want to look elsewhere for his spot-kick takers in the future but it’s better for him to make a decision sooner rather than later.

Chelsea player ratings

It was a first loss of the season for Chelsea as they took on West Ham at the London Stadium.

Enzo Fernandez’s penaty miss will be part of the talk as the game could’ve swung either way before halftime after Carney Chukwuemeka score the Blues equaliser.

Moises Caicedo’s cameo didn’t help matters after he gave the Hammers a penalty of their own in added time.