Mauricio Pochettino spoke positively of Moises Caicedo’s debut performance despite him giving away a penalty as Chelsea slumped to a 3-1 defeat against West Ham.
The £115m man did not get off to the best of starts in a Chelsea shirt and was guilty of conceding a penalty late on after coming off the bench which sealed the win for West Ham and handed Pochettino his first defeat as Chelsea manager.
Caicedo entered the pitch on 68 minutes as Chelsea were chasing a point but his manager remained upbeat about the Ecuadorian international.
“I think when we took the decision to play with him in the last 30 minutes, it is because he is ready to play.
“Maybe he was not ready to play from the beginning, but 30 minutes yes.
“He did well, very positive things. Only in the last minute we concede a goal. We cannot say nothing wrong, I think it was positive the impact and we feel disappointed, he feels disappointed. I think we deserved more.”
Chelsea played with a man advantage for almost half an hour but failed to break down West Ham, after Nayif Aguerd was shown a second yellow card and sent off by referee John Brooks.
Chelsea now have one point from their opening two games, and are three points worse off than they were this time last year.
They face newly-promoted Luton Town next on Friday night at Stamford Bridge.
“We are really excited about the squad we are building, and for sure it is only one defeat,” Pochettino added.
“For sure it is going to make us stronger and we are going to perform better in the next game.
“Now we need to move on, many positive things, not the result but I think we need to keep working and we are going to work really hard to win on Friday and give the performance we want.”
