Chelsea were well beaten on an evening that further highlighted the gulf in quality between the two sides, despite a £1billion outlay by Todd Boehly and co. However, the majority of that spending spree has been on young players with potential as opposed to established stars, investing in a long-term plan.
Arteta had the opportunity to twist the knife in when asked if he had any sympathy for Pochettino, who he spent two years with at Paris Saint-Germain during their playing days. Instead, the Spanish boss offered some words of encouragement, having faced similar criticisms during his first few years in north London.
“All the sympathy in the world,” Arteta replied. “With everything that he’s been through and everything that he’s been doing. He knows that. I’ve been on the other side as well.
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“He’s doing a great job, I think when you look at this team and analyse every second of them, they deserve to win many matches, they deserve to win against big teams. He’s doing a really good job so hopefully things will turn around and be as he deserves.”
In a not-too-dissimilar assessment of the match, Pochettino could have dug out his own players for a dismal performance but opted to back the young squad. He urged fans not to be “unfair” to the players and refused to blame the team at the very beginning of what he hopes to be a fruitful long-term project.
When asked if he felt let down and embarrassed, Pochettino replied: “No. There are too many details and circumstances why this happened. That is the experience we need to make sure the team doesn’t have in the future. The club is building a new project, a new way to operate and of course, always that is a risk you need to take when you build a young squad, it takes some time with all the circumstances we are living.
“The circumstances are not helping to be more competitive, to be better, to be more consistent. That is the reason this type of game can happen when you play a team like this that in the last three or four years are preparing to win the Premier League, to fight for the big trophies.
“I think we cannot blame the players. I am not going to blame the players. The circumstances are bigger than the performance of the players. We cannot blame young guys that came here and after suffering some circumstances, the team, you need to come here and fight against a team fighting for the Premier League.
“That is why you need to be careful. You cannot be unfair with our players. It is true that we are disappointed with our performance but I am not going to use a word that is not fair to describe our team, our players, our squad.”
