Mauricio Pochettino finally shows his class, but it’s not time to get carried away
The Argentine masterminded Chelsea to a dominant victory against Aston Villa in the FA Cup, but he still needs to prove that he’s learnt his lesson
Well wasn’t last night classic Chelsea!
Going from back-to-back brutal defeats against Liverpool and Wolves to our best performance in a long time last night against a very good Villa side.
Mauricio Pochettino is a massive reason as to why Chelsea did so well yesterday, the players looked fired up, they all looked like they were behind one another and crucially, everyone was played in their correct positions.
Before the game, no one could escape the collective feeling of dread around the fanbase, and it seemed like this was going to be Poch’s final game in charge of the club.
Fast-forward 24 hours and many people are now backing him again which I understand after a performance like that.
I’m not one to tell people how to support the club, of course, anyone can share any opinion on any topic surrounding the club, but I’m trying not to get carried away with the result last night.
Of course, I was absolutely buzzing and woke up with a proud feeling that I’ve not had in a long time.
Pochettino is a big reason for that, I’m quick to criticise him but he handled yesterday perfectly when I thought his Chelsea tenure would end devastatingly.
That’s where the praise ends for me. In situations like this, I feel it’s necessary to praise in isolation and take it game-by-game. We’ve shown the levels we can hit last night and they cannot slip.
You cannot ask for the manager to be sacked after a win that continues our glorious cup form this season, but I’m already seeing people say ‘give him the rest of the season.’
What then happens if we lose to Crystal Palace on Monday? We’d be back to square one.
I’m not going to talk about turning a corner as we’ve had these games where we’ve been excellent this season and then it’s all unravelled the next week, but yesterday was undoubtedly the best we’ve played since that crushing night at the Bernabeu in 2022.
Pochettino has to continue what he showed yesterday. That means he must continue to bench Thiago Silva and Raheem Sterling whilst playing an XI that are all in their natural positions which helped the midfield especially.
On the midfield, it was one of the most dominant Chelsea midfield performances I’ve seen since the days when we had Ballack, Lampard and Essien.
We cannot forget that Aston Villa’s midfield is seriously good and they didn’t get a sniff against Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Conor Gallagher.
They all played in their best roles and lo and behold, they looked incredible.
Enzo played next to Caicedo which is what all fans have been screaming out for all season and they made Douglas Luiz, John McGinn, Boubacar Kamara and Youri Tielemans look like amateurs.
To cap it off, Enzo scored one of the greatest free kicks I’ve seen in a long time and secured the man of the match award.
Roy Keane said: “The two [Enzo and Caicedo] of them dominated that midfield. They looked strong, they looked aggressive. Their passing was short, decision-making was excellent. They looked strong and physical. Outstanding.”
However, again I cannot get fully excited as Poch has shown he can easily revert to his old ways and mess around with the lineup and personnel.
That’s why I’m trying to be cautious but last night must’ve shown him a blueprint on how to play for the rest of the season.
Dropping Silva and Sterling was the correct decision, Sterling because we have younger and hungrier wingers who try harder and have more quality and Silva because we play the ball so much faster without him and strangely look more organised.
Benoit Badiashile and Axel Disasi didn’t give Ollie Watkins a kick, but crucially they allowed us to play a higher line and also let Ben Chilwell and the excellent Malo Gusto bomb forward.
I wonder if Silva was dropped for his wife’s antics, even if he was, Pochettino needs to continue without him as much as he’s been a tremendous player for the club.
We have Crystal Palace away on Monday and now the bar has been set.
We cannot revert back to our old ways, we simply need to kick on against a poor Palace team who will be without their three best players in Michael Olise, Marc Guehi and Ebere Eze.
A quote from Poch that really stuck with me after the game was: “Tonight we were united. We fight for each other. We fight for our fans. We fight for the badge. We fight for the coaching staff. All together”.
He’s a very likeable man and I really want to get behind him and see him succeed, but we need to see more, it’s time to deliver that consistency and more matches like yesterday will go a long way in him securing the favour of the fans once again.
Will Reyner