Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino hails significance of Man City draw: ‘It allows us to believe’
Mauricio Pochettino believes Sunday’s 4-4 draw with Manchester City allows Chelsea “to believe”, as he laid out a challenge for his players when the Premier League resumes after the international break.
Chelsea capped a brilliant week with a point against City after Cole Palmer scored a dramatic late penalty at Stamford Bridge.
Pochettino hailed the effort of his players and said: “This type of games provides us with the capacity to believe.”
But Pochettino issued a challenge to Chelsea, who have performed well against the bigger sides this season but have found it tougher going against team who defend deep.
“We are going to face teams who play totally different to Tottenham or Manchester City, we need to play another game and be competitive without space and have more patience,” he said. “But this provides the team good knowledge about what they deserve and the team.
“This is the process to build, ups and downs. But this is the way we want to build, how we want to play, how we watch to challenge these big teams like Manchester City.
“This is how we approach the games and we want to be protagonists and play high. We will always be brave and even if you have a team like City.
Pochettino was full of praise for Palmer, who came back to haunt his former club.
"His personality and character, he is a player that arrived in the last moment and he his showing great character and performance,” he said.
“I thought before the game we needed to be careful to him to give time to improve and more experience, but he is improving every single game I am happy for him and the team."