Izuchukwu OkosiChelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino hopes that England U-21 international of Nigerian descent, Noni Madueke will have more excellent performances for Chelsea after his goal against Luton Town on Saturday evening in the 3-2 win in the club’s last Premier League game of the year 2023.
Madueke who is eligible to play for Nigeria and also England at the senior level scored a second goal in as many games after also putting away a penalty kick against Crystal Palace.
Pochettino faced the media and said the following regarding the Anglo-Nigerian and also about Cole Palmer, who was awarded the Man of the Match award as well as the outcome of the game in general.
“I am so pleased because I think it is never easy. We needed to win, I think we controlled the game until the second half, 60-65 minutes.
“Overall we were the better side and fully deserved the result. (There were) too many positive performances,” Pochettino stated.
“When you concede you build the belief of the opponent. The Premier League is like this, if you see games like Arsenal, Liverpool, City, Newcastle, you understand the difficulty of playing here in this atmosphere.
“They believe in the way they play, very good players, very good coach and it is tough to play here. We needed the three points and we got what we wanted.
On the impact of Madueke, Pochettino had this to say about the collective team confidence pervading through the team and stopped short of emphasising on Madueke:
“It’s really important for the team’s confidence to get an away win and record back-to-back victories.
“Really important to finish 2023 well, look forward to 2024 to start well also. Really good to finish with good feelings and good to go into the new year with momentum.
On the contribution of Cole Palmer who was the Man of the Match, the Argentinean said:
“What can I say? It is obvious he (Palmer) is an important player for us. Decisive player. Then scoring goals like this, I am so pleased with him and the team.
“Important for the team’s confidence to get an away win and record back-to-back victories?
“Really important to finish 2023 well, look forward to 2024 to start well also. Really good to finish with good feelings and good to go into the new year with momentum.
Chelsea are currently placed 10th in the Premier League table going into the new year 2024.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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