Pochettino: Chelsea players gave up during Arsenal drubbing

Maurico Pochettino admitted Chelsea’s players “gave up” during their 5-0 drubbing by Arsenal.

Trailing 1-0 at the interval, there was no way back for the Blues after they conceded two goals in the space of five minutes early in the second half.

And boss Pochettino said: “We talked at half-time about how it is not possible to start the game like this.

“”But we started [the second half] in a bad way again. We conceded two goals and in this moment,the team gave up. We were not in the game.”

Kai Havertz scored twice against his former club as Chelsea were embarrassed at the Emirates Stadium.

Ben White scored twice too and Leandro Trossard also netted for Arsenal, whose win moved them three points clear at the top of the Premier League – and a whopping 30 points clear of woeful Chelsea.

The Blues offered very little without star man Cole Palmer, who missed the game because of illness.

Nevertheless. Pochettino refused to explicitly blame the players.

He said: “I am not going to blame the players. We cannot blame young guys. We cannot be unfair with our players, but it is true that we are disappointed with the performance.”