Mauricio Pochettino blames fatigue for Chelsea's defeat to Manchester United' (1 Viewer)

Chelsea's head coach, Mauricio Pochettino, hinted at possible fatigue among his players following their 2-1 loss to Manchester United in the Premier League on Wednesday night.

Despite their confidence from a 3-2 victory against Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday, where they played with 10 men for a significant portion of the match, Chelsea couldn't replicate that performance against United.

The home team, starting strong, secured the win with two goals from Scott McTominay, although Cole Palmer managed to equalize for Chelsea just before half-time. Throughout the game at Old Trafford, the Blues found themselves largely outplayed by their hosts at the Theatre of Dreams.

Pochettino, acknowledging the team's performance, highlighted their commendable effort against Brighton, where they played with a numerical disadvantage for over an hour when factoring in added time. In a press conference, he spoke to reporters, as quoted by football.london.

"Disappointed because we didn't start the game well and the feeling is they start better than us, more energy than us, we didn't match their energy. I think they were better. If we talk about overall, I think they were better than us.

"I think we create chances enough, we draw the first half 1-1, we had some good chances that we should score and be more clinical, that was the problem. Second half we start well but then we concede and of course then we miss the energy to be more aggressive.

"We had some chances but not enough to be in the game again. Overall, I think my feeling is that they were better than us and deserve the three points."

He added: "To play against Brighton with one less for 60 minutes, I think maybe affects a little bit the energy and the performances of the players.

"Then we need to recover, too many players injured, we need to recover them as soon as possible to be more competitive and to have options and to help the team achieve what we want."