'Always against us' - Mauricio Pochettino makes blunt Liverpool admission and referee claim

Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino felt that things went against his team at Anfield on Wednesday as Liverpool tore through the Stamford Bridge outfit's defense. But he also made a blunt admission and came away from the Premier League encounter knowing that the side that took the points was a worthy winner.

"I think Liverpool were better than us," Pochettino said bluntly during his post-match interview with the BBC for Match of the Day. "They deserved the three points. We were not good enough, I think for many reasons and I think there is too much to say, they were better than us."

But the former Spurs boss was not too pleased with some of the refereeing decisions from Paul Tierney on the day. The VAR, John Brooks, decided not to intervene on a couple of penalty decisions that Chelsea boss Pochettino felt could have been given. Tierney, he claimed, could easily have seen things differently.

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"You need some luck sometimes," Pochettino continued. "The [Conor] Gallagher penalty incident after seven minutes, I think it might have helped us to build our confidence and help us to play and face the game.

"When you play against a team like Liverpool that is doing really well and is one of the best teams in the last few years and very consistent, you need some points that can help the situation. But today, the situation was always against us."

"It's so clear they were much better than us," Pochettino added live on TNT Sports. "We lost every single duel. Every time we recovered the ball after one or two touches we lost it."

Liverpool will face Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley in a month. While nothing can be taken for granted, the Reds will head into it as big favorites — not only because of this game, but also the Premier League table, where there is now a 20-point gap between the Reds and the Stamford Bridge outfit.

"Massive game," Pochettino said about the cup final fixture. "We can learn a lot and approach the game in a different way. We need to be more aggressive and address them with the same energy. Today they were much better than us."

Liverpool.com says: It is a fair assessment to say that Chelsea could perhaps have had a couple more decisions go in its favor, but Liverpool would have had enough to win nonetheless. The Reds were streets ahead of their opponents, as Pochettino also admitted. All that money has been spent in the transfer market, but there is still a long way for the Argentine to take his squad before it gets close to a potential title challenge.