- Chelsea were held until the 75th minute
- Jackson's hat-trick settled game
- Pochettino dismissed critics
WHAT HAPPENED? The two London sides were locked at 1-1 at the interval, with a Cole Palmer penalty cancelling out Dejan Kulusevski's deflected opener. Former Villarreal striker Jackson had been enduring another frustrating night, but sprung to life with 15 minutes left to play as he put the Blues in front. Jackson added two more to his name deep into stoppage time, which handed Chelsea a morale-boosting 4-1 win away from home. Ange Postecoglou's troops put up a valiant fight after Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie were shown red cards, and had enough chances with nine-men to get something out of the game. However, Pochettino still felt Chelsea were in control throughout the game and forced Spurs to "make mistakes".
WHAT THEY SAID: When asked if the Blues should have put the game to bed sooner, the Argentine manager told reporters: "I think you are wrong. If you watch Tottenham versus Liverpool, they (Spurs) scored in the last minute. It's never easy [against a team with] two players sent off. It's difficult now to talk about tactics but most important is the 4-1 win and three points. I think we deserved to win. We forced them to make too many mistakes. Tottenham was better in the first 15 minutes and then I think we bossed the game, our performance was good and forced them into making mistakes. If you look at everything you could see during the game, I think it was fair. It could be an important three points for us, to help us now start to push up the table."
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Pochettino hopes that Jackson's performance will ease the pressure on the striker, who has struggled for form since he joined the Blues in a deal worth €35 million (£30m/$38m) from Villarreal in the summer. The striker had hit just two goals in his first nine Premier League appearances and even scuffed a few gilt-edged opportunities against Tottenham before the late surge.
"I am happy for him because we know that when strikers don’t score, they suffer," the manager said. "So that is for people to think. He is really young, arrived to the club this summer, and it’s not easy to play for Chelsea. It’s the history, about winning, lifting trophies. That’s why as a coaching staff we need to provide the tools and be calm with the way we assess things. The confidence is there and I am so happy for him because he deserves the boost."
IN TWO PHOTOS:
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GettyWHAT NEXT? Jackson regained his scoring touch in the nick of time and will hope to fire again when Chelsea host Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday in their next fixture.