Head coach Mauricio Pochettino has insisted that his Chelsea side deserved to win a chaotic London derby against his former club Tottenham Hotspur on Monday night.
A deflected Dejan Kulusevski goal gave Spurs an early lead before non-stop drama ensued, one incident seeing Sergio Romero concede a penalty and be handed a red card for a studs-up challenge on Enzo Fernandez.
Cole Palmer equalised from the spot and Spurs were soon reduced to nine men in the second half when Destiny Udogie - who was fortunate to avoid a straight red in the opening 45 minutes - was handed a second yellow.
Spurs initially held firm and had an Eric Dier goal disallowed moments after Nicolas Jackson had scored the first of three goals during the final 15 minutes plus added-on time.
Rodrigo Bentancur and Son Heung-min also squandered opportunities to bring Spurs level at 2-2 before Chelsea ultimately ran out 4-1 victors at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
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In defeating Spurs, Chelsea handed their hosts their first Premier League defeat under Ange Postecoglou, enabling Manchester City to remain at the top of the standings.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Pochettino felt that his side deserved to win, yet acknowledged that improvements would need to be made after Chelsea initially struggled at the start of the game and against 10 men.
The Argentine said, as quoted by football.london: "We forced them to make mistakes but Tottenham was better in the first 15 minutes.
"Overall, the performance was good because we arrived in a different moment and Tottenham was top of the table and to play against the leader, this performance showed we deserved to win and nothing to say more than that."
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He added: "A team arrived like Chelsea, we are still building something, we need time to come against a team full of confidence and after to concede after we started the game really bad.
"We were calm after and forced them to make a mistake. It's true we concede some chances that we cannot concede that we can assess the performance.
"Of course, we need to control better. We are building our confidence and need to be more relaxed in the way that we play."
Chelsea, who now sit in 10th position in the table, are next in action when they play host to Man City on November 12.
Darren Plant
