Thomas Tuchel has moved to manage expectations of Chelsea ahead of a crucial week that will see them return to Champions League action and contest the EFL Cup final.
Chelsea played their first Premier League game in nearly a month on Saturday, beating Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park thanks to a late Hakim Ziyech goal.
In the intervening month, Chelsea progressed in the FA Cup and won the Club World Cup for the first time, defeating Palmeiras in extra-time.
Tuchel complained about Chelsea's packed schedule after beating Palace, acknowledging his team looked "a bit drained and exhausted".
But they have little time for rest with Lille visiting Stamford Bridge in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday and then a showdown with Liverpool at Wembley on Sunday, as Chelsea look to claim a second trophy of the season.
Looking forward to an important week, Tuchel tried to ease the pressure.
"I think it is very important for us in this moment to be realistic and not over-expect from us," he told reporters.
"Also accept games against teams in mid-table or the lower end of the table can become difficult games. Once we accept that, it is the first step to feel a certain freedom and to become better, that we don't over-expect.
"We should not expect too much about how big others see us and if we are the favourites against Lille, just accept it is a phase where things feel a bit tight and a bit more difficult than in other times.
"We will accept it and this is the situation for the match on Tuesday. First of all we play at Stamford Bridge and we are confident to have a good performance because we deliver on a high level in knockout matches, cup matches, Champions League matches."
Despite his previous comments about fixture congestion, Tuchel is not especially worried about the tight turnaround being an issue before facing French champions Lille.
"I think that Saturday to Tuesday evening for us as a home game and playing in London should not be a problem," he added.
"Sometimes it can cause a big advantage if there is a tight schedule, but we will be ready to fight with Lille on an okay level so that should not be decisive."
Phil Foden admits Rodri will be a ‘big miss’ during his three-match suspension
Phil Foden admits Manchester City have a big hole to fill after influential midfielder Rodri picked up a three-game ban in Saturday’s win over Nottingham Forest.
The Spain international was sent off early in the second half of City’s 2-0 victory at the Etihad Stadium for raising his hands towards the neck of Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White.
The treble winners now face being without Rodri for their midweek Carabao Cup trip to Newcastle, next Saturday’s game at Wolves and – most crucially – the encounter at Arsenal on October 8.
Foden said: “He is one of our most important players and he seems to play all the minutes. He is going to be a big miss, but we have players to step up now and we are going to need them.”
Rodri’s dismissal dramatically changed the mood of a game City had been cruising to victory in following goals from Foden and Erling Haaland in the first 14 minutes.
A tame affair became fractious and City lost some of their composure before switching to a defensive mindset.
Attacking players Jeremy Doku and Julian Alvarez were sacrificed for Kalvin Phillips and Nathan Ake as manager Pep Guardiola took a pragmatic approach to secure three points.
“I thought we showed a different side to the team,” Foden said.
“It was not ideal with Rodri getting a red card so early in the second half, but I thought we showed heart and desire – a different side to the team that we sometimes need to show.
“I am really happy with the performance. We dug deep.”
Despite making their latest victory unnecessarily complicated, the champions’ 100 per cent start to the season remains intact.
In an ominous warning for the rest of the competition, Foden believes there is plenty more to come.
The 23-year-old said: “I would say it is a perfect start, but there are still a couple of gears for us to go. We are happy with the start, but we still know we can get better.”
Forest manager Steve Cooper was pleased with his side’s response in the second half and felt they should have got more from playing against 10-man City.
He said: “When you play a game and you get presented an opportunity, you really want to recognise that you have to take that.
“I’m not angry with the players. I’m not disappointed in any way, shape or form, and I’ve told them that.
“But I’ve just challenged them, like, ‘Come on boys, really back yourselves, because I do’.
“Hopefully we’ll reflect on the game and be motivated that we can play in these really tough games and do some good things.”
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.”
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