sport news Chelsea close in on unwanted Premier League record held by Leeds... but ... trends now
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One of Mauricio Pochettino’s methods for improving his young Chelsea players’ maturity this season involved a video session in December. The squad were sat down at Cobham and shown a series of clips which the manager described as ‘silly’ yellow cards.
Naturally, Nicolas Jackson featured, having picked up seven Premier League cautions by that time, only one of which was considered understandable for a foul to kill a counter-attack against Tottenham. As did Reece James and Raheem Sterling, each booked for needlessly kicking away the ball at Newcastle. Enzo Fernandez committed the same petty crime against Brighton, a game in which Conor Gallagher was shown a second yellow.
Pochettino reminded his players that the Premier League had ‘changed the rules’ – that they will be punished for any misdemeanours, from kicking away the ball to blocking free-kicks from being taken to complaining to referees to pushing an opponent.
It was a topic brought up in subsequent team meetings as Pochettino tried to make sure this mindset stuck with his squad. Cautions are inevitable in competitive football, they were told, but there is a right way and a wrong way to receive them from card-happy referees.
To their credit, this message seems to have eventually seeped through.
Chelsea are closing in on the Premier League record for most yellow cards in a season
Before a meeting in December, Nicolas Jackson had picked up seven Premier League cautions in which only one was considered understandable by the Blues
Mauricio Pochettino sat the squad down and showed them clips of silly yellow cards
Since the turn of the year, Chelsea have kept their misconduct to a minimum. They can still lose control of their emotions – like how Benoit Badiashile and Noni
