Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior admitted he lost his cool ahead of Tuesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg over what he believed was a lack of “respect” towards his Arsenal players.
Sky Sports cameras captured the Blues manager getting into a heated exchange with the home side on the Emirates Stadium pitch before kick-off, accusing him of invading Chelsea’s half.
Teams usually take half of the pitch each to warm up, but Rosenior unleashed a side of his character previously unseen in his time as manager and criticized the Gunners’ lack of “etiquette”.
“When you warm up, you have half of yourself and the other team has half of you,” he said. “At that moment, I didn’t think it was right where they were operating. They were affecting the warm-up of my players.
“So I asked them, maybe not politely, but for them to stay in their own territory. I’m not here to play brain games. I just think it’s the right and respectful thing to do.”
“There’s a certain etiquette in football. I don’t have any problems with anyone at Arsenal. It was at that moment that I thought the team was not shown respect.”
Chelsea lost 1-0 thanks to a goal from former player Kai Havertz in the seventh minute of stoppage time, and Arsenal won 4-2 on aggregate at Wembley.
This is not the first time that controversy has arisen over the issue of pregame warm-ups.
Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp stood on or near the halfway line, close to where his opponents were picking up the pace, and watched intently.
Critics at the time accused him of trying to intimidate opposing teams, but speaking at an event last January, he revealed the reason behind the habit.
“Actually, I did it to understand the opponent a little bit more,” Klopp said. “They thought I did it to intimidate them.”
Chelsea’s Carabao Cup exit was the only setback in Rosenior’s first month in charge, which saw him win three of three Premier League games and earn a direct place into the last 16 of the Champions League.
His biggest challenge so far has been dealing with the intense media interest in Cole Palmer. The team’s most creative player has not been well this season and in January it was reported that he was feeling uneasy and wanted to return to his hometown of Manchester.
There was also the issue of fitness. His playing time has been carefully managed after being sidelined a few weeks before Christmas with a groin injury and unable to put together a game.
Rosenior said both Palmer and Estevan were ready to play 90 minutes against Wolves on Saturday, adding: “We have the best medical team, the best sports science team. We are doing a lot of testing. We want to make sure these players can play at the level we need to win.”
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“When it comes to calls, there’s no deadline for it to be perfect in a month or two, it just changes from game to game.
“He’s trusted and he’s been great. He’s growing as a person and understanding the bigger picture of his career.”
Forward Jamie Gittens was injured in last week’s game against West Ham and missed Sunday’s loss to Arsenal.
Coach Liam Rosenior on Thursday did not say when he would recover.
“Unfortunately, it’s a bit more of a long-term outlook for him,” Rosenior said. “He has a torn hamstring, which is really unfortunate for him and will be a big time off for us as well.
“I didn’t have a chance to work with him for long, but I knew his career and how good a player he is, so it’s a big loss. It’s too early to say how long he’ll be out.”
Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.
