Related items

• Mauricio Pochettino believes PSG stint stood him in good stead for Chelsea job

  Mauricio Pochettino thinks the 18 months he spent in charge of Paris St Germain kitted him out to tackle the complicated task of turning Chelsea’s fortunes around.

  Under the Argentinian, PSG were crowned Ligue 1 champions in 2022 having missed out to Lille the previous campaign after he had replaced the sacked Thomas Tuchel mid-season.

  Crucially he failed to land the club’s Qatari owners the prize they most coveted, the Champions League, losing in the semi-final to Manchester City in 2021 and to Real Madrid in the last-16 the following year.

  It was reported that Pochettino never felt that he enjoyed full authority over the club’s star-studded squad, and was kept by the hierarchy from reining in the erratic behaviour of certain big-name players.

  He left in the summer of 2022 and did not work in football again until accepting the job of piecing together Chelsea owner Todd Boehly’s expensively assembled side in June.

  He said the experience of managing in the famously chaotic environment of the French champions helped him as a coach, but acknowledged that the challenge he faces at Stamford Bridge is of a different order.

  “I think it helps,” said Pochettino. “It helps to take things in a different way. Of course, experience is a really important point in football, in how you are going to deal with things.

  “It would be arrogant to say that because I was there, now I can manage everything. The demands always are completely different.

  “But when you add experience and experience of different clubs, different countries, different cultures, I think it gives us the capacity as a coaching staff to help in a better way the players and then the club that wants to develop some new ideas or new projects, like we are now doing.”

  Chelsea face Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on Sunday when Pochettino will come up against another coach who knows intimately the unique demands of life at PSG, Unai Emery.

  Emery managed the club for two seasons between 2016-18, winning the title in his second year but joining the list of coaches unable to fulfil the club’s frustrated Champions League ambitions, twice going out in the last 16.

  He returned Villa to Europe for the first time in 12 years last season, finishing seventh in the Premier League after taking over from Steven Gerrard in October.

  “For myself and for Unai, (the job) is not to prove anything,” said Pochettino. “I think it is to try to help (our) clubs to achieve what the clubs want. I never feel that I need to prove something.

  “We (Pochettino and assistant Jesus Perez) arrived at PSG and in one year and a half we won three (trophies). We proved that we can win.

  “But you can win with a team that normally wins when you are in a project ready to win. In that case, Unai and myself are building something. He is building at Aston Villa a very nice project, and we are starting to build a very good project for the long-term at Chelsea.

  “I think it’s not easy to win with PSG, it’s not easy to win with different clubs. We need to give the credit for the coaches and players that win with different teams, because for different reasons, you feel the pressure in a club like PSG. You cannot (have) any excuses.

  “But the Premier League is the most important competition and the most competitive, and if you can win here, I think the feeling for sure that the credit is bigger.”

• Grant McCann believes Doncaster are heading in right direction after Gills scalp

  Doncaster boss Grant McCann believes his side are only getting better after making it back-to-back wins with the 2-1 triumph over high-flying Gillingham.

  Two excellent strikes from Ben Close, including an 87th-minute winner, saw Rovers collect their first home league triumph of the campaign, a week on from finally picking up a maiden victory at Forest Green.

  And McCann feels his side are firmly heading in the right direction as they seek to make up ground on the promotion-chasing pack in the division.

  “We had to be very good to win and I felt in the second half we were as good as we have been this season,” he said. “I thought we were really in control.

  “We’re yet to have that full 90-minute performance. We’re still searching and that takes some doing, every manager will tell you that. Teams will always have a spell against you.

  “I felt that Gillingham didn’t really have much of a spell against us and on a whole, I felt the second half was a real performance from us.

  “I could feel the team taking on board the information we had given them, particularly in taking up the pockets of space to have that control of the game against a top, top team.”

  Gillingham manager Neil Harris is still looking for his team to find the balance between defensive solidity and creativity after dropping points in South Yorkshire.

  The Gills set the early pace in League Two with five 1-0 wins from their opening eight matches. But with Harris encouraging them to deliver more decisive scorelines, they have shown vulnerability in defence, which he is keen to see quickly banished.

  “In the last couple of weeks we’ve been a lot more creative, we’ve had sparks, we’ve shown class and we want to continue that because if we do, we will wins games of football comfortably,” Harris said.

  “We’ve won a lot of games so far 1-0 by being resilient. In the last couple we’ve not been as resilient as I would have liked but we’ve been really good with the ball. We’ve just got to find that balance between the two.

  “The winning goal for Doncaster – he stuck it in the top corner but it’s poor from the restart, and it was from the first. To be a top team in League Two, we’ve got to be better than that from restarts.”

  Despite his frustrations, Harris felt Gillingham should have won the game comfortably.

  He said: “I’m baffled how we’ve not won the game. We’ve not won the game because we weren’t clinical enough. We should have been coming off (with) four or five goals but if you don’t take your chances, you don’t win games.”

• Nigel Clough praises patience as Mansfield go third

  Mansfield manager Nigel Clough praised his side’s patience as they moved up into third place with a 1-0 home win over Barrow.

  Stags are the only EFL side unbeaten this season in all competitions but were made to sweat until Ollie Clarke drilled in the 72nd-minute winner.

  A red card in the 84th minute Junior Tiensia then sealed the Bluebirds’ fate.

  “We needed that win,” said Clough. “We are not quite as fluent as we were a few weeks ago, but you grind them out.

  “With nine players out at the moment, that is probably a good reason why we are disjointed at times.

  “But one good finish and you win the game – it was an important clean sheet.

  “In a few weeks’ time no one will remember the game, just the three points which have put us back up to third in the league. And I think there are going to be quite a few games like that here where we are going to have to be patient.

  “The crowd are going to have to be patient as well. We are not always going to be having 25 shots, as much as we’d like to.”

  Barrow had the edge in the first half and Emile Acquah missed the target with their two best chances.

  Rory Feely also sent a free header over from a 58th-minute corner.

  But Mansfield took control and Will Swan saw his shot deflect over, skimming the top of the crossbar on the hour.

  Calum Macdonald escaped with a yellow card for his challenge on 70 minutes before Clarke broke through with a low finish from 20 yards from Swan’s pull-back from the left.

  Tiensia then saw red on 83 minutes for diving in on Aaron Lewis.

  Barrow boss Pete Wild felt the game proved his side can live with the best and he felt Stags had the rub of the green on the red cards.

  “I thought first half we played really well and it was a classic away-from-home performance,” he said.

  “Second half as the home team they pinned us in and I didn’t think we got out enough and got on the front foot.

  “It is fine margins and it didn’t go our way. But there were mitigating circumstances and I feel hard done by.

  “The turning point for me was they should have had a red card before ours. He dived in and left the floor. Our lad’s was a red though, which didn’t help us.

  “They won it with the one shot we haven’t blocked in the whole game.

  “There was nothing between the two teams which shows we can live with the top teams at this level. But they have just edged it today.”