Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino was praising Djordje Petrovic before his first ever start for the club. Petrovic joined Chelsea for a sum of €14m in the summer transfer. The injury-driven Chelsea squad faces further setbacks as Reece James, Cucurella and Robert Sanchez will face spells on the sidelines. The 24-year old GK came on as a late subs in a 2-0 defeat to Merseyside club Everton. He was the man between the sticks during the second goal.
The Argentine manager says that it is a huge blow to lose a player like Robert Sanchez but also believes Petrovic has the ability to drive in Premier League. He said in a pre-match press conference that,
“We lost our No.1 keeper so far, always it’s a player you are going to miss. We have other keepers who are working hard to be ready, when this type of thing happens.
It’s very sad because we are going to lose a player for maybe a few weeks and we’re still waiting to see perfectly the situation with Robert [Sanchez] and also with Reece [James] and Marc Cucurella.
From the beginning, we’ve been hit with different circumstances, this one is an important circumstance but we need to be strong because the competition doesn’t stop and we need to be ready to go.“
On being asked about the confidence he has on his new goalkeeper, he added,
“He arrived to Chelsea because he has potential. Of course he’s young and came from different football. But now after four or five months working with us it’s the moment for him to step up and feel good because we have the confidence in him, we trust him, his team-mates trust in him and it’s time for debut at Stamford Bridge.
We trust in him to perform in the way we want.”
Chelsea will hope to return back to the winning ways as they will face the relegation battling side Sheffield United at home. Though, Chelsea are also not looking a very strong side this season as well. They currently sit in twelfth position in the points table and will hope to recover from it on Saturday.
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