Mauricio Pochettino defends Chelsea after ‘bottle jobs’ jibe from Gary Neville

Mauricio Pochettino defended his players after “not fair” criticism from Gary Neville – who labelled Chelsea “blue billion pound bottle jobs” as they lost the Carabao Cup final to Liverpool in extra time.

Liverpool captain Virgil Van Dijk’s glancing header secured a 1-0 win for Jurgen Klopp’s side, who were missing as many as 11 injured players for the Wembley showpiece and relied on young, inexperienced players to come on late in the game.

Chelsea had the likes of £100million midfielders Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo on the pitch and were able to turn to almost £150m worth of talent from their own bench.