Troy Deeney has criticised Liam Rosenior’s ‘vanilla’ and ‘generic’ post-match comments and questioned whether Chelsea were ‘brave’ enough in their Carabao Cup semi-final defeat to Arsenal.
With his side trailing 3-2 from the first leg, Rosenior sprung a surprise by starting with a back five against the Premier League leaders at the Emirates.
And while the tactical switch meant Arsenal’s chances were limited in the first half, the visitors struggled to create clear-cut opportunities of their own at the other end of the pitch.
In an effort to add some much-needed impetus, Rosenior sent on both Cole Palmer and Estevao on the hour-mark, but Mikel Arteta’s men were equal to it and managed to snuff out any potential threat.
In the end, it was one of Arsenal’s substitutes, Kai Havertz, who came on and put the tie to bed, with the ex-Chelsea forward rounding Robert Sanchez and finishing coolly to send the home crowd into raptures deep into stoppage time.
The 4-2 aggregate means Arsenal will be competing in their first major cup final in almost six years next month. The Gunners will discover their Wembley opponents tonight when Manchester City and Newcastle face off in the second leg of their semi-final tie.
Chelsea, meanwhile, must lick their wounds and try to pick themselves up again ahead of their return to Premier League action away to lowly Wolves this weekend.
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‘In terms of application, intensity, desire to win, duels, running for each other, I’m very proud,’ Chelsea head coach Rosenior told CBS Sports shortly after the final whistle.
‘We came here wanting to win, wanting to go through and, overall, we’re very disappointed that we haven’t done.
‘You have to take into account the quality of the opposition and where they’re at.
‘Also, we had a few late absentees that we weren’t planning for, so, overall, I can’t fault the players for their application that they put into the game.’
Rosenior said he was ‘pleased’ by what he was seeing from his players in terms of ‘development’ – not that it made the defeat any less ‘painful’ to come to terms with.
‘I think the [development] is clear as day to anyone and that’s what pleases me so much,’ he added.
‘Bearing in mind as well, I think we’ve only had three actual, real, tactical training sessions in the last month.
‘I’ve been here for less than a month and we’ve had eight games so all credit goes to the players.
‘The understanding, our press was very, very good, the understanding of our positions.
‘With the ball, we’re getting better but it wasn’t enough tonight and I think that’s the most painful thing.’
The Blues attempted an innovative tactic to counter Arsenal’s set-piece prowess when defending corners on Tuesday evening, with three players seen sprinting forwards in an attempt to catch their hosts off guard.
‘They’re outstanding at corners and sometimes you have to try something different,’ Rosenior explained.
‘Bernardo [Cueva], our set-play coach, does a fantastic job and studies where they want to put the ball and what areas they want to put the ball into.
‘When you come in and you’re a goal down, you have to be brave in many different ways. That was the way we went about it but it still didn’t give us the result that we wanted.’
Reacting to Rosenior’s post-match interview in the CBS Sports studio, ex-Watford striker Deeney was less than impressed, especially given Chelsea’s largely uninspiring performance that had come before it.
‘If I was a Chelsea fan, I don’t want to hear that. You’re giving me a lot of generic and vanilla comments, like, you’re telling me it hurts but I can’t see any pain in you that you’re actually losing that game,’ Deeney said.
‘I didn’t see anything in that game that suggested they wanted to go and win, it was all about stopping Arsenal. And when you’re talking to me about set-piece coaches, I don’t want to hear about it.
‘You’ve just lost, you’re out of the semi-final and we’re talking about the set-piece coach… watching the other team so he thought he’d stick three up. I’m not interested.’
Deeney doubts Chelsea supporters will buy Rosenior’s suggestion that his side showed ‘bravery’ against their bitter London rivals over the course of the two-legged tie.
‘Genuine question, do you think they were brave enough tonight?’ he said.
‘He said “brave” three times in that interview so, as a fan, put yourself as a Chelsea fan, what do you take away from it that was brave tonight?
‘My frustration, when we’re talking about brave… and there’s a very thin line between brave and being stupid… so if they tried to go out and score five against Arsenal and lose 3-0 we’d all be saying he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
‘But I don’t remember a chance that they should score, I don’t remember a good save from the Arsenal goalkeeper, I don’t remember a moment where we’ve thought Chelsea are dominating it.’
Declan Rice was his typically bubbly self as he spoke with the CBS Sports punditry team after Arsenal’s win – and Deeney feels this kind of ‘authenticity’ is what football fans really want to see from players and managers.
‘We just spoke to Declan Rice. What’s the first thing everyone said? He’s a nice person because when you see him, whether they win, lose or draw, he gives you his authentic self,’ he went on.
‘What I’m saying is, I know that’s not how you’re [Rosenior] really feeling and that’s not just to Liam, that’s to 90 per cent of managers and 95 per cent of players now.
‘We just saw a Viktor Gyokeres interview… I’ll put that on later to go to sleep because he ain’t going to give us anything. They’re giving us the same boring stuff.’
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