Jan Vertonghen is enjoying ex-Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino’s disappointment. Former Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen enjoyed Chelsea’s defeat to West Ham on Sunday. Ex-Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino could not stop his team losing 3-1 to the Hammers, who were down to 10 men for the final half-an-hour. And Vertonghen relished his former coach’s floundering at the London Stadium.
The Blues fell 1-0 down after seven minutes to Nayed Aguerd’s header after lackadaisical defending at a corner. But they dominated the rest of the first 45 minutes, levelling through Carney Chukwuemeka before Enzo Fernandez missed a penalty.
Michail Antonio restored the hosts’ lead with a thunderous shot early the second half before Aguerd was sent off for two yellow cards. Chelsea cranked up the pressure in search of an equaliser but debutant Moises Caicedo gave away a stoppage-time penalty which Lucas Paqueta converted.
And fan favourite Vertonghen – who spent eight years at Spurs – clearly enjoyed what he saw. The Belgian defender, now back in his home country at Anderlecht, liked a post on X (formerly Twitter) from @thespursweb which read: “Poch is getting schooled by 10-man West Ham.”
Spurs fans have turned on Pochettino for taking over at Stamford Bridge despite his affiliation with the north Londoners. The 51-year-old was Tottenham’s manager for five-and-a-half seasons before being sacked by Daniel Levy in December 2020.
He had regularly hinted at a return to the club in the future but instead took over as London rivals Chelsea’s new manager back in May. In the Premier League era, only Andre Villa Boas (55 per cent) managed a better win ratio than Pochettino (54.27 per cent).
But he has his work cut out at Chelsea after a summer of spending over £300m. They have drawn with Liverpool and lost to West Ham in their first two matches and have much work to do on the training ground to sharpen up defensively and hone their finishing.
Speaking post-match, Pochettino – who reunites with old club Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at the start of November – said: I think today the result doesn’t reflect the performance. If we had scored the penalty we missed then we go into half-time at 2-1 and maybe we’re talking about a different game and situation.
“Maybe we’re happy because we won the game. That is football and we need to accept that it happened. Yes, disappointed but this is a process and we need to keep working.”
Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs had a more enjoyable weekend however. The Australian led the Londoners to a 2-0 defeat of Manchester United to follow up on a 2-2 draw at Brentford on the opening weekend.
