Chelsea ‘squarely behind’ Pochettino despite poor start to the season

Chelsea remain fully committed to Mauricio Pochettino’s reign at Stamford Bridge despite the club’s appalling start to the 2023/24 campaign, The Athletic reports.

The Argentine tactician has not enjoyed the best start to life at the club after picking up a meagre five points from his opening six Premier League games.

The Blues are languishing in the bottom half of the table, ranking 14th with a solitary victory over Premier League newcomers Luton Town to their name.

Wednesday’s morale-boosting 1-0 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion in the League Cup third round was only Chelsea’s third win of the season across all competitions.

Despite their appalling results, statistics show the Blues are among the top performers in the league this season but they are desperately lacking cutting edge at the top end of the pitch.

Alongside defending champions Manchester City, Chelsea are the only other side to win every game on expected goals (xG) but they have failed to translate those performances into positive results.

Pochettino remains confident both he and his players have the quality to turn their abysmal start around, and the previous victory over the high-flying Brighton could mark a significant turning point in their season.

It appears the Chelsea hierarchy shares Pochettino’s optimism, with The Athletic’s David Ornstein adamant they are not considering a managerial change at the moment.

“I have no reason to think Chelsea are anything other than squarely behind Pochettino,” Ornstein said. 

“Clearly there’s a need for stability at Stamford Bridge after events of the past year or so, and another managerial change is presumably the last thing on their agenda. 

“He’s [Pochettino] a top coach and manager who came through what was described by the club as an exhaustive recruitment process, so I’m sure he’ll get time and deservedly so.”

Chelsea travel to Fulham at the weekend looking for only their second league win of the season, although they will have to deal with a long list of injury problems at Craven Cottage.