Olaleye IDOWU
Former Wolves striker, Troy Deeney, has slammed Chelsea boss, Liam Rosenior, over what he described as ‘vanilla’ and ‘generic’ comments after the Blues’ defeat to Arsenal in the Carabao Cup semifinal second leg.
He questioned whether Chelsea were ‘brave’ enough in their loss to Arsenal.
With his team behind 3-2 from the first leg, Rosenior surprised everyone by starting with a back five when facing the Premier League leaders at the Emirates.
Although the tactical change restricted Arsenal’s options in the first half, the visitors also found it difficult to generate clear scoring chances.
To give the team a much-needed boost, Rosenior substituted both Cole Palmer and Estevao at the hour mark, but Mikel Arteta’s players stayed strong and prevented any real danger from developing.
The 4-2 aggregate means Arsenal will be competing in their first major cup final in almost six years against Manchester City, who beat Newcastle United in the second leg of the semi-final ties.
Deeney was not happy with Rosenior’s post-game interview on CBS Sports, especially since Chelsea did not play very excitingly against Arsenal and did not try to win the match.
Rosenior said that he was proud of how Chelsea played the game despite the defeat. He praised himself for having won about six of the seven matches he has been in charge at Stamford Bridge and also hailed the Blues’ set-piece goalkeeper.
Deeney said he would not want to hear that as a Chelsea fan. He said, “If I were a Chelsea fan, I wouldn’t want to hear those 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.
“I didn’t see anything in that game that indicated they were aiming to win; it was all about stopping Arsenal.
“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.”
