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Raheem Sterling was left astonished after Newcastle United defeated Chelsea 4-1 at St. James' Park. The 28-year-old winger found an equaliser in the first-half with a superb free-kick but, despite his best efforts, he couldn't drag the Blues to victory.
Just minutes after Alexander Isak put Eddie Howe's side ahead, Nicolas Jackson won possession for Chelsea on the halfway line. The 22-year-old striker popped the ball off to Enzo Fernandez, who then played Sterling in-behind the Magpies' backline with a brilliantly threaded through pass.
The Blues winger raced towards Nick Pope's box and, just before he could find a shot from range, Kieran Tripper brought him down and the Newcastle defender was quickly shown a yellow card. Reece James initially stood over the ball, but it was Sterling who stepped up to the plate.
Despite scoring for the west Londoners, the England international struggled to impress beyond his set-piece mastery. Sterling was later replaced by Noni Madueke and, after the full-time whistle, he was spotted gathering his thoughts in the dugout.
The camera panned to Sterling, who was spotted on the bench by himself at a loss for words. His reaction speaks volumes, knowing that he and his teammates let Pochettino down after having enjoyed a decent vein of form in the build up to the game.
Speaking post-match, the Chelsea boss didn't pull any punches and slammed his players' mentality. Pochettino said: "We were not prepared in the best way to compete today. That is my concern. We thought we were ready to compete today but we didn't in the way the competition demanded.
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"Even if Newcastle wasn't great, it was an easy win. To come here, Chelsea, and show it would be difficult for them to play to win the game and beat us. It was so easy the way that we conceded. the way we were soft in every single challenge, we did not show we were playing for something important.
"That is why it made me angry and disappointed. Even if we talk about being a young team, we need to learn. These type of games make me very, very, very, very, very angry because it is about showing more personality and character. Okay we are young but we can not miss this type of opportunity to show our best.
"We can not come from Tottenham, Man City, [where] around the world people praised Chelsea and then… ’Okay, I stop one step before, I don’t do the effort in the right moment. Ok no problem it is going to fix my teammate in behind'. That is a problem. We need to be more solid in this area.
"Mental of course and attitude, it is not attitude, it is about showing more strength in our mental game and be ready to compete. This is not the same that play football. I can play football, you can play football but to compete? I want to be ready to compete but today we didn’t."
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