Mauricio Pochettino demanded a copy of the FA Cup match-day programme to defend his young Chelsea side.
Pochettino, 52, had watched his Blues' side unconvincingly reach the FA Cup quarter-final against ten-man Leicester City. Chelsea let a 2-0 lead slip, but went on to win 4-2 after substitutes Carney Chukwuemeka and Noni Madueke both found the net in injury time to send the west Londoners to Wembley.
The former Tottenham Hotspur and Paris Saint-Germain manager bemoaned fatigue and his side's long injury list as the reason behind Chelsea's consistent form. But after seeing a huge list of players listed within Chelsea's squad on the FA Cup replay, Pochettino blasted it as misleading.
READ MORE: Gary Lineker mangles Carney Chukwuemeka's name as fans laugh at BBC FA Cup host
READ MORE: Raheem Sterling booed by own fans for skying free-kick after Chelsea penalty miss
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After defending his decision to substitute Mykhailo Mudryk, Pochettino said: "But look, we are going to support Mykhailo, we are going to support Raheem and we are going to support all the players that are in the squad, that is big, because in the programme, you, you don't have the programme here that today… [Asks for the matchday program and holds it up]. People say: ‘Oh big squad.’ But did you see the names [points to the names at the end of the list] under 18, under 18, under 18, under 18, under 21, under 21, under 21.
"And sometimes people you can confuse, you know: ‘Big squad.’ Do you know why we use too many we put here because we use this guy few minutes in Carabao Cup, in the FA Cup or in the Premier League because of the circumstances.
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Luke Littler darts fans can back 'The Nuke' in Premier League with his playing shirt
Luke Littler fans can now buy the 17-year-old's playing shirt to support him as he continues to demonstrate his talent in the Premier League.
The darts sensation was only 16 when he wowed Alexandra Palace at the World Darts Championship (WDC), despite a final loss to Luke Humphries.
The Nuke will continue playing against seven of the best dart players in the world — Humphries, Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Nathan Aspinall, Rob Cross and Peter Wright — in a mini-tournament in a different city every Thursday until the final in May.
"It's only, no, sometimes people want to talk like I want to be nice on [what] we have yes, because we are not going to hide nothing. Big squad is long because we had too many players on the first team and we should use all the kids that are helping us. For the second time in the FA Cup, Carabao Cup and FA Cup in Wembley.
"That is always when I arrive to England, at Southampton they say: ‘No, we need to go to Wembley.’ ‘We need to go to Wembley.’ Southampton and Tottenham: ‘We need to go to Wembley.' And now look in, in nine months in the two different competitions, we got Wembley and we need to enjoy and we need to trust more."
Pochettino was derided with chants of "You don't know what you're doing" by his own fans when he replaced Mudryk with Chukwuemeka. He did prove to know what he was doing as the youngster's late goal sent Chelsea into the next round. The Blues were drawn to face Manchester City in the semi-final at Wembley.
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