Mauricio Pochettino reveals why Chelsea job is harder than Tottenham amid Daniel Levy admission

The manager enjoyed much success at Spurs before being sacked and feels his current role is tougher
Nizaar Kinsella5 November 2023

Mauricio Pochettino says that beating Tottenham can kick-start Chelsea's season but believes his job at Stamford Bridge is harder than the one he had in north London.

The Argentine coach has overseen a patchy start to the campaign which has left Chelsea sitting in 11th place and 14 points behind Spurs, who entered the weekend top of the Premier League under new manager Ange Postecoglou.

His return to his former club on Monday night will be emotional and is full of pressure to earn all three points from a London derby.

Asked whether an important win could give Chelsea the confidence they need to kick on, Pochettino said: "It's a process but I hope it will be the game that will help us to grow quicker.

"Sometimes it is one game, one performance, one result or one goal that can help be the trigger to change and complete things."

Pochettino also had an underwhelming start to his time at Tottenham, only to become arguably the club's best manager of the Premier League era by reaching the Champions League final in 2019.

Pochettino was also asked whether his current run at Chelsea reminds him of those early Spurs struggles.

"Again, it is difficult to compare because when we arrived it was a year before that [Luka] Modric and [Gareth] Bale left," he said.

"They spent a lot of money signing players [to replace them] and then started a young project with Harry Kane, Eric Dier, Dele Alli, Ryan Mason, Nabil Bentaleb and Heung-min Son.

Mauricio Pochettino led Tottenham to the Champions League final in 2019
Getty Images

"Here, this beginning is tougher, because with this young team, it is harder to find a way to perform.

"We are putting pressure on the young guys to perform right away. At Spurs, experienced players were there and then we decided to move [them out] but the young guys were there working for a few months, four or five months to understand our way of working.

"Then, after a few months, players like Harry Kane started to play. Okay, that's why it is different and difficult to compare.

"For sure, Chelsea is an exciting project and we are going to find a way to get results. Performances are good but what we are missing is translating that to a positive result."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in