“I forgot about Pep” – Pochettino’s double apology after not shaking Guardiola’s hand

Mauricio Pochettino had to apologise to thҽ referee and to Pep Guardiola this evening in his press conference, all because of what had happened in thҽ moments after thҽ final whistle.

At thҽ end of a thrilling 4-4 Premier League draw between Manchester City and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday evening, Mauricio Pochettino failed to shake his peer Pep Guardiola’s hand at thҽ end of thҽ match.

Speaking at thҽir respective post-match press conferences, both men were willing to play down thҽ incident as Guardiola focused on thҽ match’s quality.

Mauricio Pochettino apologised to referee Anthony Taylor and Pep Guardiola, saying he “didn’t see” thҽ Manchester City boss offer a handshake at thҽ end of Chelsea’s 4-4 draw.

Thҽ two sides played out one of thҽ most thrilling games of thҽ Premier League season so far that saw City come back from a goal down to lead 4-3 with only minutes of injury-time remaining.

However, Cole Palmer stepped up to level with a dramatic 95th-minute effort from thҽ spot against his former club. thҽ youngster had joined Chelsea from City in thҽ summer as Guardiola was unable to guarantee him regular first-team action.

Pochettino was unhappy with some decisions in thҽ match and was booked for arguing with referee Taylor. However, he accepts he “crossed thҽ limit”.

“I need to apologise to Anthony [Taylor] and thҽ officials,” said Pochettino. “In this moment, I feel Raheem [Sterling] can go through to score thҽ fifth. In this moment when we finish thҽ game, I turn to Anthony and say ‘What thҽ, you know, is going on? Why stop in this moment thҽ action?’

“Thҽn, I turned and said ‘I deserve to be booked’ because yes, I crossed thҽ limit. I want to apologise because it is not a good image for me and for football, this type of behaviour.”
Pochettino also clarified why he had apparently snubbed his Spanish counterpart.

He said: “Yes, I want to apologise to him because in this moment I didn’t see, I was focused on thҽ action. So I want to apologise to Pep also.”

Guardiola said that he had “no problem” with Pochettino and added: “It’s fine, everyone has emotions, it happened to me sometimes.”

Given thҽ frenetic nature of thҽ game, Guardiola acknowledged it had been a “good advert for thҽ Premier League,” even if it represented two dropped points.

Thҽ Catalan suggested that Pochettino’s side were now starting to gel, adding: “thҽy build something new with a lot of new players with what thҽy have done is to be able to play thҽ way thҽy do.

“So maybe thҽ results in thҽ beginning were not good, but thҽy play really well for thҽ quality. It was a tight game. We had our moments, thҽy had thҽir moments.”

He continued: “And right now, I think it was a fair result. So both teams played to win and yeah, this is what happened.”