Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has refuted claims of indiscipline among his players in the wake of Cole Palmer and Raheem Sterling’s suspensions. Despite leading the league in yellow cards this season, Pochettino emphasized that the players’ actions stem from the pressure of representing a prestigious club like Chelsea.
Palmer and Sterling accrued their fifth bookings during the recent 2-1 defeat to Wolves, rendering them ineligible for the upcoming match against Crystal Palace due to an automatic one-game ban. Chelsea has already faced suspensions for Reece James, Malo Gusto, and Conor Gallagher earlier in the season.
Concerns also loom over summer signing Nicolas Jackson, who is just two yellow cards away from reaching 10 for the season and incurring a subsequent two-match ban. Pochettino, however, dismissed the notion of a disciplinary issue, attributing the players’ occasional lapses to the intense pressure associated with playing for a high-profile club.
Get Instantly Update By: Joining Our Whatapps and Telegram Channel
In defending his team, Pochettino stated, “When you are frustrated, and you don’t have maybe the experience of other teams, you make a mistake. Palmer is playing his first season as a regular for us. It’s normal. The players care, they want to win, they are frustrated. It’s not a discipline problem; we need to have more capacity to read the situation of the game.”