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Mauricio Pochettino is of the opinion that Chelsea’s latest defeat might have been as a result of a lack of rest for his players.

The Blues were beaten 2-1 by Manchester United at Old Trafford on Wednesday night.

Cole Palmer scored in between two Scott McTominay goals on either side of the break, but it wasn’t enough for the visitors.

Chelsea had gone into the game off the back of a hard-fought 3-2 win against Brighton just three days before, while Man United lost 1-0 to Newcastle on Saturday.

While giving his post-match analysis, Pochettino blamed the congested fixture list for his side’s loss, and argued that Man United had a day more to rest.

He said, as quoted by Nizaar Kinsella: “It was difficult at the start, they showed massive energy.

“Maybe we were affected, because we played Sunday with one less [player] for 60 minutes with similar players. This type of game it’s difficult to assess, because of how [important] one day more for Manchester [United] to recover and for us to play 60 minutes with one player less.

“With this situation we missed a little bit of energy from the beginning.”