Chelsea left their young mascot to fend for himself before kick-off at Anfield (Picture: Twitter)
Chelsea’s players came under fire on Wednesday night after one of their mascots was left to fend for himself while Liverpool’s anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone rang out at Anfield.
The short clip, which has gone viral on social media, shows Mauricio Pochettino’s men mindlessly wandering away from the centre of the pitch to perform their customary high fives in the moments leading up to kick-off.
The bewildered young lad in the video can be seen looking around for guidance for what feels like an age before a cameraman eventually comforts him with an arm around the shoulder and a few words of support.
If karma is real, it struck back emphatically on Merseyside as goals from Diogo Jota, Conor Bradley, Dominik Szoboszlai and Luis Diaz consigned Chelsea to a 4-1 loss, their ninth defeat of the Premier League campaign.
The result saw Jurgen Klopp’s rampant Liverpool restore their five-point lead over champions Manchester City and Arsenal at the top of the table, with the Reds’ rivals also securing victories this week.
The irony of the clip was not lost on football fans across X and many jumped at the chance to lambast Chelsea’s stars for leaving their poor mascot in the lurch during what would have been a nerve-jangling moment in front of 57,000 screaming supporters.
Some directed their fury towards Blues captain Ben Chilwell – standing in for the injured Reece James – for his apparent lack of awareness at the time.
‘This is a bad look for Chelsea… mascot just left there wandering around,’ Liverpool fan @davesLFCchats wrote.
Another X user posted: ‘@ChelseaFC. Completely disconnected from their young supporters.’
The World Class Stamp Podcast posed the question, ‘Where’s the skipper?’, to which Liverpool supporter @03_tommyy replied: ‘There’s no leader in that team at all’.
‘This isn’t right…,’@CFCTix responded.
Chelsea fan @Silas_linebjerg called on the club to get in contact with the young mascot’s family to apologise.
‘@ChelseaFC sort this out and atleast try to show some dignity and contact this poor kid family immediately. Disgrace,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Liverpool fan @OverseaArgonaut said: ‘I saw this last night too, it was heartbreaking to watch a once in a lifetime experience being spoiled.
‘Chillwell went up for the toss and then looked around for him and the photographer pointed that he was by the corner flag. Poor lad, poor from the Chelsea captain.’
Pochettino’s men were consigned to their ninth league defeat of the season (Picture: Getty)
Speaking after Chelsea’s defeat, a despondent Pochettino, rather tellingly, blamed his side’s poor away form on a lack of ‘personality’ and ‘character’.
‘I think it’s part of our personality and character,’ the Chelsea head coach said.
‘We need to be more confident in ourselves. Now we are improving at home. Last season, that was a big problem.
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‘Now we need to feel more confidence away from home.
‘That is about confidence and trust. We need to have the capacity to have the same performance away from home. It’s a matter of time.’
MORE : Bruce Grobbelaar tips ex-Chelsea to take over from Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool
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