'They could smell the blood' - Gary Neville explains Chelsea 'billion-pound bottle jobs' jibe

Gary Neville insists he doesn't want his «billion-pound bottle jobs» tag to stick with Chelsea but believes Mauricio Pochettino's side «froze» in extra time of their shock Carabao Cup final defeat to Liverpool.

Mauricio Pochettino's side suffered a 1-0 loss at Wembley on Sunday afternoon after Reds captain Virgil van Dijk headed home a 118th-minute winner for a Liverpool side relying on several academy players after being plagued by injuries in recent weeks.

And after Van Dijk headed his side in front when connecting with a Kostas Tsimikas corner in the final seconds of extra time, Neville took a swipe at Chelsea and their failure to prevail after Liverpool, after losing Ryan Gravenberch to injury in the first half, had 12 players missing for the showpiece final at Wembley.

Pochettino was asked about Neville's comments in his post-match press conference at Wembley and insisted he was «proud» of his players for their «big effort» even if they did miss the opportunity to earn the first piece of silverware of the Todd Boehly era.

But speaking on Monday Night Football, however, Neville was asked for his assessment of the comments he had made 24 hours earlier but defended his choice of words and reiterated that Chelsea's approach to the game in extra time had left him angry.

«Look, I'm not going to sit and say that it was an instinctive commentary moment, well it was instinctive because I didn't know what was going to happen in extra time, but Peter did about 35 seconds after the goal, Carragher did about 25 seconds and I was getting angrier,» said Neville.

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