Pochettino makes Liverpool 'excuses' admission and reveals how Chelsea will be different in Carabao Cup final

Mauricio Pochettino was under no illusions that Chelsea were second-best in all departments during their loss against Liverpool.

The Reds delivered a comprehensive 4-1 victory at Anfield to regain a five-point lead at the summit of the Premier League. Diogo Jota, Conor Bradley, Dominik Szoboszlai and Luis Diaz were on target for the home side, who also missed a penalty through Darwin Nunez.

Chelsea mustered a brief response when Christopher Nkunku made it 3-1 in the 71st minute but it proved nothing but a consolation goal. The Stamford Bridge side did have appeals for penalties either side of half-time turned down, with Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk involved in collisions with Conor Gallagher and Nkunku.

However, Pochettino admitted it would be an excuse to point to those incidents as Chelsea languish 10th in the table. The Blues boss said: "I think it's a final excuse. The performance wasn't good from us. They deserved to win, they were better than us. Of course that is a situation that maybe provides us with an opportunity to be close on the score but to talk about this type of action today, I don't want to talk about that because that is part of football.

"To be honest, we didn't perform in the way we wanted to perform. They were better than us from the first action, through the 90 minutes. This is the type of game when you say, 'Well done, Liverpool'. In the final, I think we need to approach the game in a different way and I think it will be different."

Liverpool will meet Chelsea later this month in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley. It's a repeat of the 2022 showpiece which the Reds won via a penalty shootout following a 0-0 draw - before the same outcome was delivered in the FA Cup final the same season.

The west London side have a significant gap that needs bridging and Pochettino insisted that his troops must give more. He added: "For sure we are going to be at Wembley, and it is going to be different at a neutral place. Of course that is always different. Of course, that is the feeling the players have now. It's good because if we were to compete in the same way as today, for sure it is going to be the same result. If we don't improve, then it's going to be difficult.

"Always the games are different. Now it's always different circumstances. For us, it's about to learn in this type of game. We were competing against a team that is on the top and of course, it's good for us to feel that we need to improve because the way we were talking from the beginning. Of course, we know the circumstance that we have but it's to realise we need to push ourselves a little bit more."