“Now he knows…” – Atalanta match-winner snaps back at Chelsea winger after pre-game comments | OneFootball

Charles de Ketalaere scored the late winner for Atalanta last night against Chelsea as he danced through a hesitant defence and beat Robert Sanchez at his near post with a great strike.

It was the least his team deserved after an impressive second half performance turned around Chelsea’s first half lead. And according to the elegant Belgian, it had a bit of spite in the finish too.

Atalanta strike back after Garnacho comments cause a stir

Alejandro Garnacho applauds the away fans. (Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images)

Atalanta had apparently been offended by Chelsea winger Alejandro Garnacho, who was the player chosen for the pre-match press conference, where he admitted:

“The last time I saw Atalanta was two years ago, in the Europa League final they won.

“It’s a big opportunity for us to get the three points and I think we’re going to be there in the top. We are focused on the game, like every game, and just to win.”

The Italian media took umbrage at what they saw as disrespect to Atalanta, and funnelled that towards the Italian club’s players. It seems pretty harmless to us, and not even deliberately offensive, but sportsmen will always use whatever snippet they can for motivation.

“Now he knows who we are. For us, it’s not possible to play games like Saturday’s against Verona and then maybe win a match like today. We need to improve our consistency.”

Chelsea are the ones who need to improve their consistency really – after beating Barcelona 3-0, they now are 5 games without a win. Maybe they should have done a little more preparation for Atlanta after all…

In other news…

Chelsea have signed up another really impressive teenage talent – Mohamed Zongo is set to head to Strasbourg to get his BlueCo career going.

Gianfranco Zola has been speaking about Enzo Maresca, and he’s more positive about the coach than some fans might be at the moment.