A young Chelsea fan gave a damning assessment of his players holding up a sign telling them he doesn’t want their shirts, on a night when Chelsea were humiliated 5-0 by London rivals Arsenal.
Premier League leaders Arsenal ran wild with former Chelsea star Kai Havertz and Ben White scoring a brace after Leandro Trossard opened the scoring four minutes into the game.
During the contest, the fan held up a sign with images of the Chelsea kit that said: ‘I don’t want your shirt!! ‘I want you to want to fight for what is ours. UTC (Chelsea up).
Chelsea captain Conor Gallagher was asked about the sign during his post-match press conference.
Responding to a question about the poster suggesting Chelsea players aren’t working hard enough, he said: “Well, we’re definitely putting in the effort.”
A young Chelsea fan held up a sign telling the players he didn’t want their shirts and instead told them to fight for the kit, a damning assessment during a tough 5-0 defeat to Arsenal.
Chelsea captain Conor Gallagher defended his team in response to a question about the poster, insisting his team-mates are “definitely making an effort” despite the disappointing defeat.
“I know how much it means to all the boys, I know it has been said many times, it is a very young team and without much experience as a team in the Premier League.
‘We’ve had a lot of ups and downs and we’re still improving and working together as a team to get to the next level.
‘Today was one of those days where we were nowhere near that.
“We need to dust ourselves off and also look at the performance and where we can improve and all the mistakes we can fix and move on to the next one.”
The poster also caught the attention of Chelsea fans on social media.
One of them said: “The sign that a fan was holding at tonight’s game says it all… FIGHT FOR THE SHIRT!”
Gallagher admitted Chelsea players ‘weren’t even close’ against Gunners
Another commented: ‘That sign the boy was holding broke me even more. Hang your heads in shame, Chelsea.
While a third suggested that Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino should nail the poster to the dressing room wall.
Pochettino himself joined the young fan in venting his fury by accusing his players of “giving up” at the Emirates.
He said: “We talked at half-time that it is not possible to start the game like this. But we started badly again. We conceded two goals and at that moment the team gave up. We were not in the game.
“It is impossible to see Saturday at Wembley, a fantastic performance, competing very well against Manchester City, one of the best in the world, and then today. You can lose a game and Arsenal are fighting for the Premier League, but the way we compete three days ago and today, there is no excuse.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side were overtaken by the Premier League leaders on Tuesday night.
‘Three days ago, fantastic match, great performance, deserved to go to the final. Today, you can use any word to describe our performance. Our standards don’t hold up on bad days. When we have bad days, we are so bad. When we are good, we are capable of anything.’
It caps a disappointing couple of days for the Blues, who lost 1-0 to Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-finals, after wasting many chances during the match.
Cole Palmer scored four goals for Chelsea in a 6-0 win over Everton, but even that was perhaps overshadowed after Noni Madueke and Nicolas Jackson argued they should take a penalty before the England international, who is the penalty taker. penalties designated by the Blues.
The tough defeat against Arsenal leaves Chelsea ninth in the standings, although they are still just three points behind sixth-placed Newcastle with six games left to play.
