‘Not going to blame’: Mauricio Pochettino standing by £31m Chelsea player after Aston Villa defeat

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Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino is refusing to blame Malo Gusto for his side’s defeat against Aston Villa yesterday.

Malo Gusto was sent off in the second half before Ollie Watkins scored the only goal of the game to earn his team all three points and condemn Chelsea to another loss.

Speaking to football.london and other outlets after the match, Mauricio Pochettino said: “Of course, it’s our responsibility and the referee’s responsibility, we cannot blame VAR or the referee. In this situation we need to act in a different way.

“I’m not going to blame or say anything against Malo Gusto because some situations happen in football. That situation can affect the game in a negative way.”

Chelsea also had problems in attack, which has become a common theme at Stamford Bridge.

Following that 1-0 loss against Unai Emery’s men, the Blues have now failed to score in their last three matches.

Mauricio Pochettino right not to blame Malo Gusto

Pochettino has taken the correct approach not being too harsh on Gusto.

The right-back, who joined Chelsea from Lyon in a £31m deal, is only 20. And at the end of the day, he was sent off for a bad tackle that any defender can make.

Hopefully Gusto can learn from it, but where Pochettino’s side obviously need to do much better is going forward.

If they are not going to score at home against teams like Villa and Nottingham Forest, who do they actually plan to beat at Stamford Bridge this season?

It is worrying, but Chelsea are only six games into the new Premier League campaign. Pochettino should have time to fix things and get the team back on track.

How he goes about doing that, though, remains to be seen. And by the time the Argentine does sort things out if he can, the Blues could be miles away from the top four.