Mauricio Pochettino claims Chelsea do not 'deserve' to play in Europe based on Arsenal performance

Mauricio Pochettino admits Chelsea do not deserve to qualify for European football if they carry on playing like they did against Arsenal.

The Blues suffered their heaviest defeat since February 2019 as they were on the wrong end of a 5-0 drubbing at the Emirates Stadium.

Leandro Trossard opened the scoring for the Gunners in just the fourth minute, and things continued to go wrong from there for the visitors.

And Pochettino told TNT Sports his team failed to perform to the levels expected of them.

"I think we started the game not so well," he said. "We conceded the goal and then it was difficult for us to recover.

"I think in the first half we compete after 10, 15 minutes. We were talking at half-time that we cannot start the second half how we started the first half, but we started again showing too low energy and we didn't compete in the way we needed to compete.

"When we conceded the third goal it was so easy for Arsenal to manage the game and for us it was difficult to fight for an objective. I think that describes the first 15 minutes and the first 15 minutes of the second half, I think we lose the game there."

The result leaves Chelsea in ninth place in the table, three points behind Manchester United who sit seventh, who have played an equal number of games.

Should they fail to qualify for a European competition, it will be the first time since the mid-1990s that the club have not competed in continental football over two successive seasons.

"Now it's difficult to see the future because after this game, we feel disappointed," Pochettino continued. "It's difficult to talk about objectives.

"If we don't compete, it's difficult to talk. If we compete like Saturday, then okay, against Manchester City. But competing today, I think do we deserve to go to Europe? In this way, no."

Chelsea were hindered by the absence of top scorer Cole Palmer, who missed the match due to illness.

In his absence, the Blues managed merely one shot on target across the entire game, while their opponents landed 10.

Pochettino refused to blame the defeat on Palmer's absence though, adding: "I think we cannot say now that was the reason we lost the game.

"But when you lose a player that is a creative player, that helps to link all the lines of the team, the most difficult thing is the circumstance that we are losing the player.

"Today, more than that, more than the circumstances, we didn't compete from the beginning, and then it was difficult to be in the game.

"Against a team that is fighting for the Premier League, it's not a coincidence. That is why we need to compete in a different way, but we are talking too much.

"During this season, I think it's enough to talk. All the information that we are receiving now is that we want to be in a different position next season. We need to take decisions.

"You need to be clinical, like against Manchester City three days ago, we created many chances but we weren't clinical. Today, the same thing happened.

"So a difficult result, so a difficult performance, because I think it's not nice to see your team playing like this from the beginning of the game when you're supposed to have full energy."

- - -

TNT Sports presents the premium live sports rights previously carried by BT Sport including the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, Gallagher Premiership Rugby, Investec Champions Cup, EPCR Challenge Cup, MotoGP, Cricket, UFC, Boxing and WWE. The streaming home for TNT Sports in the UK is discovery+, where fans can enjoy a subscription that includes TNT Sports, Eurosport and entertainment in one destination. You can also watch TNT Sports through BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media.