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Mauricio Pochettino admits Chelsea have hit ‘bottom’ in one key area amid nightmare Premier League run
Mauricio Pochettino has acknowledged that Chelsea is grappling with a significant challenge amid their difficult Premier League campaign in 2023-24.
Despite delivering promising performances against top-tier rivals such as Liverpool, Arsenal, and Manchester City on home turf, Chelsea has been plagued by inconsistency since Pochettino assumed managerial duties in the summer.
Pochettino maintains that the team’s overall performances haven’t been overly subpar. However, he candidly concedes that his players seem to be missing the crucial competitive edge required for success in the demanding Premier League. This acknowledgement suggests that Chelsea is facing difficulties maintaining a consistent level of performance and competitiveness, potentially contributing to their challenging run in the league.
Speaking to the official Chelsea website, Pochettino said: “The performance from the beginning of the season is not bad. We could have said it’s very good, but in terms of competing we are at the bottom. That is why we are not in a better position in the table. Football is about having all the quality and knowledge in your set-ups, the way you press and build from the back, and so on. Then at some point during the 90 minutes, you need to compete: that is the moment you need to show you can play another [style of] football. We need to improve there.”
Since Todd Boehly took over in 2022, Chelsea has invested over £1 billion in player acquisitions. Despite significant financial outlays and heightened fan expectations for the club to be competitive in European football, reality has fallen short of these aspirations. As of the 2023–24 season, Champions League qualification appears to be slipping out of reach, prompting the acknowledgment that Chelsea may have to wait another year before making a return to the elite stage.
Mauricio Pochettino, Chelsea’s manager, has conceded that the team is significantly behind the preseason targets. In his own words, “We are so far away from our targets. Our target was to be at the top, even if nobody believed it. Now we are fighting for different things. Because of our history, the demand is to be at the top, but at the moment, being realistic, we need to increase the way we compete if we want to win more games than we lose.”
This candid assessment underscores the gap between the club’s expectations and its current performance, emphasizing the need for improvement in their competitive approach to achieve better results.
Last weekend, Chelsea lost their 19th Premier League match of 2023 to Wolves, which ties them for the most losses in the English top division with Fulham, Bournemouth, and Nottingham Forest.