Mauricio Pochettino makes Raheem Sterling penalty miss admission after Chelsea win
Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino has defended Raheem Sterling after the attacker missed a penalty during the win over Leicester City.
The Blues had started well against their second-tier opponents with Nicolas Jackson impressively able to burst past Jannik Vestergaard to set up Marc Cucurella for a 13th-minute opener. It should have been 2-0 when Sterling was caught in the area by Abdul Fatawu, but the penalty by the Blues star was poor and Jakub Stolarczyk saved the scuffed effort with his feet.
Sterling had taken the ball off Cole Palmer, who had scored all five of his spot-kicks this season, although the duo combined before half-time with the latter able to sweep home for his 14th goal of the campaign. The game ended 4-2 with Carney Chukwuemeka and Noni Madueke scoring late on.
Speaking after the game, Pochettino attempted to defend Sterling after he took his penalty record to five misses from nine kicks. The Argentine said: “Raheem asked for the ball for the penalty and Cole gave the ball. You saw on the TV but that is not a problem.
“Cole can miss, Raheem can miss. For me, their decision and I will always support the decision of my players on the pitch.
“It’s obvious that I cannot hide nothing. You are like me, the feelings weren’t good for him (Sterling) but I am going to support him, we are all going to support him.
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“We need to accept. It doesn’t mean we agree or not agree but we have to accept because our fans, all the fans in football live expectation and want the best for the club, the best for the players.
“Of course when you
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