Cesc Fabregas slams Chelsea penalty fiasco and hints at “bad vibe” in dressing room

Cesc Fabregas claims there is a “bad vibe” in the Chelsea dressing room after the argument between Noni Madueke and Nicolas Jackson over a penalty.

Chelsea’s 6-0 win over Everton in the Premier League was marred by an ugly confrontation between the players over a second-half spot-kick. With the score at 4-0, there was a disagreement about who should take the penalty that Cole Palmer eventually tucked away for his fourth goal of the game.

Palmer has now scored nine out of nine from the spot for Chelsea and is the designated taker in the squad. It took an intervention from captain Conor Gallagher to resolve the argument and get the ball into Palmer’s hands – and Mauricio Pochettino was furious after the game.

Former Chelsea midfielder Fabregas has recalled a similar incident between him and Sergio Ramos in which the Spain captain pulled rank and took the ball off him, only to miss.

“I had a similar experience at the European Championship in 2016 in Spain against Croatia,” he said on the BBC’s Planet Premier League podcast.

“I was about to kick the penalty for 2-1 for us and there was someone coming from the back and said: ‘I want to take it’. I said: ‘No, I’m the penalty taker’. I hate it when I see these kinds of things. I think it creates such a bad vibe. I just gave it up and I didn’t want to be a part of anything so ugly.

"We ended up missing it and then after that we ended up losing the game.”

The 2-1 defeat against Croatia cost Spain top spot in Group D at Euro 2016 and meant they had to face Italy in the last-16. Fabregas’ side were beaten 2-0 by the Italians in the knockout stage and clearly the resentment has festered ever since.

Pochettino has tried to draw a line in the sand over the penalty incident. "It is a shame,” he told Sky Sports after the match. “I was telling the players when we arrived from the pitch. We had a meeting with all the staff also and we explained and were talking. For me it is a shame because we cannot behave in this way and I can only apologise.

"I told them that this is the last time that I accept this type of behaviour. Next time those involved in a situation like this are all out. This is not a joke.

"It’s impossible after a performance like this to have this type of behaviour that shows that we are in a process and we will learn a lot. We are a great team fighting for big things. We need to change and think more in a collective way.”

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