Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino was happy with another clean sheet in their goalless draw with Aston Villa in the FA Cup, saying his Chelsea team are gaining more consistency.
Chelsea battled hard, and created decent openings but failed to get the better of their fellow Premier League rivals on a chilly night at Stamford Bridge.
Pochettino spoke of how his side are getting more consistent, and are heading in the right direction.
“During the first half of the season, we are showing that we can compete. First game against Liverpool, against Arsenal, Man City, Tottenham”, said the Chelsea boss.
“The problem was in the first half of the season, in the first seven months, we didn’t show the consistency. Now it looks like we are more consistent with our performance. Only the defeat against Middlesbrough away from home that we were maybe disappointed. That is how we want to compete.
“A great opportunity now to go and play Aston Villa and try to compete. It’s going to be good for this young team to play and show we can compete.”
Aston Villa made the game a well contested affair, creating plenty of chances of their own. The away side came close through both Matty Cash and John McGinn.
Pochettino was complimentary of Unai Emery’s side as the two teams will now have to play a replay at Villa Park.
“They have amazing players in attack. They didn’t score and we kept a clean sheet. We face a team like Aston Villa, it is difficult. Of course, we didn’t score but we created chances. I trust and believe in my players, for sure, playing in this way that we are going to score”, Pochettino said.
“The ‘keeper is an amazing ‘keeper. Emiliano, he was really, really good and sometimes you need some luck to score.”
Levi Colwill was named in the starting XI, however due to injury, had to pull out during the warm-ups.
Pochettino believes the knock does not seem to be too serious.
“We don’t believe it’s too bad. A smaller issue. He didn’t feel comfortable. We knew before we might not start with him but then he was ready to play, but then he felt something”, Pochettino said.
