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Mauricio Pochettino has played down a row between a Chelsea fan and striker Nicolas Jackson during Saturday’s 2-0 home defeat against Brentford at Stamford Bridge.
With the game goalless at the break following an opening 45 minutes in which Chelsea dominated, a supporter shouted in Jackson’s direction, with some close to the incident claiming his words included the phrase: “Why don’t you score a goal?”
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Jackson, who has scored twice in the Premier League in nine appearances, reacted angrily and Pochettino then spoke to the supporter to diffuse the incident but he could not prevent Chelsea slipping to their fourth league defeat of the season.
Asked about the fracas, Pochettino said: “It was a moment we all felt frustrated because we played really well, created chances and didn’t score.
“This moment was a little bit down in energy in the stadium. He arrived to me, we were talking about the position on the pitch, to find some solution and give some direction to him.
“Because the atmosphere was really really calm, one fan say ‘oh wake up’ and start to abuse a little bit — I don’t say abuse, but it is abusing — and for Nico, he loses a little bit of focus and I say ‘hey, come on, be focused here.’
“I say ‘stop talking in this way, we need to support the players, stay behind the team’ but that’s it. Nothing more.
“It was very respectful and the fan was very respectful. He only say ‘wake up’ and the player took it in a bad way which is only normal because the player wanted to score, to provide a good thing but nothing wrong.”
Chelsea coach Jesus Perez was also sent off near the end following an argument between the two benches and there were boos at full-time as they extended a poor run of just one win from their last 13 league home games.
Despite Chelsea spending more than £1 billion since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital completed their takeover of the club in May 2022, Pochettino admitted his squad currently lacks sufficient firepower with Armando Broja and summer signing from RB Leipzig, Christopher Nkunku, both sidelined through injury.
Asked whether there were enough goals in the squad, Pochettino said: “It is obvious that at the moment, so far, no.
“But bad luck — Nkunku has proved he can score in the big leagues like Bundesliga, was injured in the last pre-season game. This type of thing didn’t help. Then we need to recover Broja, in different circumstances Nicolas Jackson was affected for different reasons. He is young, he arrived this season and needs time to adapt.”