Mauricio Pochettino bites back at brutal Chelsea 'bottlejobs' jibe after Carabao Cup defeat

Mauricio Pochettino has called Gary Neville's criticism of Chelsea as 'billion pound bottle jobs' unfair after Sunday's Carabao Cup final defeat to Liverpool at Wembley Stadium.

Virgil van Dijk's 118th-minute header sent the red half of Wembley into raptures after nearly two hours of high-intensity football. The Blues missed a number of big chances throughout the game with Conor Gallagher failing to convert in normal time.

After Van Dijk headed Konstantinos Tsimikas' corner into the bottom corner, Neville claimed the Chelsea squad had bottled it. In his commentary, the ex-Manchester United defender said: "[Jurgen] Klopp's kids winning against the blue billion pound bottle jobs."

The club have spent over £1billion on new signings sinceTodd Boehly and Clearlake Capital completed their takeover in 2022. Eight of the starting line-up have all arrived under the new ownership, with Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo each costing over £100million.

Despite Neville's criticism, Pochettino has defended his group of players after the heartbreaking defeat at Wembley. Asked about his thoughts on Neville's verdict, the Argentine replied: «I don't hear what he said. If you compare the age of the two groups, I think it's similar.

»I have a good relationship with Gary and I don’t know if that’s how I can take this opinion. But I respect his opinion.

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«Of course, we made a few changes with [Conor] Gallagher and [Ben] Chilwell in extra time, it is true we didn’t keep the energy of how we finished the second half.

»But for sure I feel proud. I feel proud of the