Mauricio Pochettino rages at Chelsea’s players for penalty taker fiasco

Chelsea head coach Mauricio Pochettino has revealed he will no longer accept his players fighting over who takes penalties after another scuffle occurred in Monday night’s win against Everton.

The Blues ran out 6-0 winners at Stamford Bridge, with Cole Palmer moving joint-top of the Premier League scoring charts with four goals of his own.

His final strike came from the penalty spot midway through the second half. Palmer had been tripped by Abdoulaye Doucoure inside the 18-yard box, though play was allowed to continue for a short while until James Tarkowski tackled Noni Madueke.

Presumably thinking the whistle was blown for the challenge made on him, Madueke took the ball and headed to the penalty spot, only for Nicolas Jackson to argue he should take it instead.

After the duo went back-and-forth over who the rightful taker of the penalty should be, captain Conor Gallagher informed them Palmer would be tasked with firing home from 12 yards. Though he had already scored a perfect hat-trick that evening, Palmer had scored all eight of his penalties for Chelsea to that point, taking his record to nine from nine thereafter.

The Stamford Bridge crowd reacted angrily to the penalty farce as it was ongoing, and Pochettino revealed his own sour feelings about it to Sky Sports post-match.

“It is a shame. I was telling the players when we arrived from the pitch. We had a meeting with all the staff also and we explained and were talking. For me it is a shame because we cannot behave in this way and I can only apologise,” Pochettino said.

“I told them that this is the last time that I accept this type of behaviour. Next time those involved in a situation like this are all out. This is not a joke.

“It’s impossible after a performance like this to have this type of behaviour that shows that we are in a process and we will learn a lot. We are a great team fighting for big things. We need to change and think more in a collective way.

“It’s so clear and I made clear to them and through you, to the fans and to everyone that Cole Palmer is the taker, and then if Palmer wants to give it to another he can. But not in this way.

“It is a sad situation that happened and we have all agreed it cannot happen again.”

Palmer downplayed the spat in an interview of his own following Monday’s victory, adding: “Other players wanted to take it, but I am the penalty taker and I wanted to take it.

“Maybe the argument was a bit over the top, but everyone wants to win and help. Afterwards, we were laughing and joking about it, but the manager has spoken to us about it.

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