Mauricio Pochettino maintained a positive attitude after Chelsea nearly threw away a 3-0 lead against Luton in a thrilling game at Kenilworth Road.
A stunning comeback as Luton responded to Cole Palmer’s brace and Noni Madduk’s fine finish, with goals from Ross Barkley and Elijah Adebayor coming soon. However, Chelsea, still in tenth place, managed to avoid relegation, with their young side ending a dismal year of four straight away defeats.
“I’m very happy,” Pochettino said. “It’s never easy. We need to win. I thought we controlled the game until the second half. Then, when you throw in the towel, you increase the opponent’s confidence. That’s the way it is in the Premier League. If you see ahead [Luton] Competitions like Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool and Newcastle you can see how difficult it is to play here. This is a team that really believes in the way they play. It’s always tough playing here. “
Palmer has scored eight league goals since joining from Manchester City – “a very important player for us,” Pochettino said – with his second here It was after he rounded Luton goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski and fired the ball into the net.
“When I passed the ball to the goalkeeper, I thought the other guy was going to touch it soon,” he said, “so I just waited until I had time to put the ball in. Hopefully this is just the beginning.” I’m adapting to my new life — My teammates, the city, everything is new to me — and hopefully I can show more on the court,” he said.
Rob Edwards took heart from Luton’s fiery performance although his side remain in the bottom three. “A bit of a what-if game?” he said. “It was a great performance. I knew they were 3-0 up so that changes people’s perceptions. It was hard to find a way out in the first half. We gave them the first goal.
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“We were very brave. For the players, what they did showed that they were special. We showed fight, we showed quality. We had the ball more times than they did. We were really brave. We got the game back . Edwards believes his team needs to show more ruthlessness in both penalty areas. We continue to learn and improve,” he said. “I saw a lot of things that I liked. It’s difficult to keep clean sheets in the Premier League. Zero and one give you a chance.”
