Chelsea 'make things unbelievably difficult for themselves'

Will Faulks, Chelsea News, external

In the news conference after yesterday's game, Mauricio Pochettino was asked about Chelsea's discipline issues. For the second game in a row, the manager's captain had got himself sent off for two silly yellows.

Instead of criticising his group, the ever-positive Pochettino put a different spin on it, pointing out that the best way for his players to learn was by "living" these sort of experiences. It's a nice way of looking at it, although he may not be so generous with them behind the scenes.

If one needs to suffer in order to learn lessons, this Chelsea team are going to be totally zen pretty soon. Even in games they win, like the one at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, they make things unbelievably difficult for themselves. If the path to the finish line in a game ever appears clear, they will divert course down a barbed-wire filled alleyway just to keep things interesting.

By Pochettino's logic, this will end up making them the most emotionally stable group in the league eventually. And yesterday, we did see some evidence of that.

With the captain sent off, it fell to other leaders in the team to step up. Two players who have been criticised recently, Enzo Fernandez and Thiago Silva, put in incredibly gritty performances defensively to keep their team ahead. They used all their quality and experience to get us over the line and dig themselves out of their self-made hole.

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