Mauricio Pochettino praises amazing Emiliano Martinez after a goalless draw match.
Mauricio Pochettino praises Emiliano Martinez after the Aston Villa goalkeeper produced a string of saves to deny his Chelsea side in their goalless FA Cup fourth-round meeting at Stamford Bridge.
Villas are five places and 12 points ahead of Chelsea in the Premier League table but there was little to separate them here, although the hosts will reflect on chances missed in the first half by Noni Madueke and Cole Palmer as a shot at setting the tie slipped away.
Martinez was the decisive actor on both occasions, spreading himself well and blocking in one-on-one situations. E
Emiliano Martinez
John McGinn had Villa’s best opportunities, first when his Clipped effort sailed inches over the bar on the stroke of halftime then again when he stole in at the near post to meet Nicolo Zaniolo cross late on but guided it wide under pressure from Thiago Silva.
It is now three consecutive home games against Villa in which Chelsea have failed to score, as they struggled to capitalize on the momentum of Tuesday’s 6-1 Carabao Cup win over Middlesbrough that set up a final showdown against Liverpool at Wembley next month.
This type of game is very even, said Pochettino. When you face a team like Aston Villa, always it’s difficult. We didn’t score but we created chances. I trust and believe in my players playing this way, we are going to score.
We came from Tuesday, we scored six so today should be good. But their keeper is amazing, he’s really good. Sometimes you need some luck to score
Mauricio Pochettino
Chelsea lost defender Levi Colwill to injury during the warm-up, with 20-year-old academy graduate Alfie Gilchrist drafted into the starting xi.
Pochettino confirmed Colwill’s injury was not serious and emphasized his belief in Gilchrist as a capable stand-in.
It is not so bad, it is some small issue that maybe he didn’t feel comfortable with, he said we knew before we might not start with him. We hope he will train tomorrow.
The most difficult thing ( for young players ) is to manage the stress. ( Gilchrist) thought he wasn’t going to play. Sometimes with the young guys, you give a starting XI and they think too much, maybe they can’t sleep. The stress can affect them. But he got half an hour ( to prepare), no time to think too much.
