The winger was on the score sheet in Wednesday’s victory (Picture: Getty)
Mauricio Pochettino has praised Noni Madueke’s impact against Crystal Palace and was delighted with the way the Chelsea winger channelled his anger at him to secure three points late on.
The 21-year-old was rather surprisingly left out of the starting XI for Wednesday’s 2-1 victory despite Raheem Sterling and Cole Palmer both being suspended, with full-back Ian Maatsen preferred on the wing instead.
Chelsea took an early lead through Mykhailo Mudryk but were pegged back on the stroke of half-time by Michael Olise and looked to be heading towards another frustrating draw until second-half substitute Madueke was brought down inside the box.
The referee initially waved play on but was sent to the pitch-side monitor by VAR and awarded a spot-kick, with Madueke dusting himself off to dispatch the penalty with aplomb.
Madueke has struggled for game time under Pochettino and the Argentine coach felt his ‘upset’ winger was out to prove a point in his brief cameo, and he was delighted with the youngster’s response.
‘I want all the players who are not involved to go at me,’ explained Pochettino after the game.
‘I like it because we won the game. He got the penalty and scored it. We are not a charity. We are a football club and we need to perform.
Madueke stepped up to secure three points for Chelsea (Picture: Getty)
‘We are here to try to help the players to perform. Sometimes we need to be tough and show the reality and put in front of them the mirror to show, “Come on, that is not the player that is going to perform”.
‘We have an amazing group of players, very nice people. But to compete in Chelsea is not the same as another club. It’s about winning, to lift trophies, to respect the history of the club.
‘How do you respect? Go in there and fight. The first thing is to have the right mentality and show respect to the history of the club.’
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He continued: ‘He showed he was upset with me and was disappointed with me because he didn’t play too much, also because he was injured.
‘I think he said, “Now I’m going to show the coach he can trust in me”. They [the players] need to show me I can trust.
‘The mentality is really important. You cannot only play with your quality. If you don’t have the right mentality and the right approach every single day, in training and in games, it’s difficult to perform. You have to be ready to fight for yourself and the team, and it was so nice to receive this energy in the game and then at the end of the game.
‘This is how he needs to behave every single day. We are not bad people, who don’t want to play with some players. Only you can connect with your talent if you show the right mentality.’
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The west Londoners got back to winning ways against Crystal Palace.