Related items

• Chelsea job not as hard as Southampton or Tottenham – Mauricio Pochettino

  Mauricio Pochettino believes he is under no greater pressure from the owners at Chelsea than in either of his two previous Premier League appointments.

  The Argentinian enjoyed successful spells with Southampton and Tottenham, guiding the latter to the Champions League final in 2019, but has seen his new side struggle for goals and wins since he was appointed in the summer despite a huge transfer outlay.

  He famously enjoyed a close relationship with Spurs chairman Daniel Levy prior to being sacked five months after taking the club to within a game of being crowned European champions.

  At Southampton there was a similarly jovial working arrangement with executive chairman Nicola Cortese, who appointed Pochettino in order to try and stabilise Saints in the top flight, a task he achieved comfortably during his 18 months in charge.

  Yet Chelsea has brought a different level of expectation with over £1billion spent on recruitment by co-owner Todd Boehly’s Clearlake Capital consortium, an investment that is yet to yield results with the club mired in the bottom half of the table.

  Pochettino said that far from making the task harder, the work that had gone on prior to his appointment at Stamford Bridge has made his job less complicated.

  “It’s less hard than when we were in Southampton and Tottenham, trust me,” he said. “Believe me.

  “The only thing we are missing is scoring goals, because the team is playing, if you see our first few months in Southampton and Tottenham, I think we (Chelsea) are playing much better.

  “We are doing much better here, but we are missing the most important (thing) in football – to score. But it’s not harder than the previous experience.

  “It was different (at Tottenham). The transformation was with us, in the way that we found the squad, with the club, we were working in six months, one year to change and design.

  “Here, the plan was already made, and we arrived here and we tried to develop this project. When I arrived here, the plan had started to work. Now I am part of the plan. Of course I am responsible here also like in Tottenham, but I think it was a little bit different.”

  Pochettino’s work at Southampton laid the foundation for his reputation in the Premier League, guiding the team to a 14th-place finish after replacing Nigel Adkins midway through their first season back in the top flight.

  The decision of Cortese to dispense with Adkins, who had led the club up from League One, and replace him with a coach who was virtually unknown in England was controversial at the time.

  However, the pair quickly built a relationship that underscored the manager’s first success in England.

  “With Nicola we were really close,” said Pochettino. “He liked to invite me for coffee before a game in his office at St Mary’s.

  “One day we were sitting on the sofa in his office and talking and talking, and my phone was like this (face down). We were talking about I don’t know what. Then somebody knocked the door and said, ‘we need to start the game in five minutes’.

  “Nicola was like that. Daniel (Levy) sometimes arrived before the game to talk in the manager’s office. At the moment it’s not the case because in these five games at home, (the owners) came after.

  “(Co-sporting directors) Paul (Winstanley)  and Lawrence (Stewart) always come to say hello before. It’s a similar relationship (to Southampton and Tottenham). No more pressure now than in other places.”

• Manchester City hit by travel headache ahead of hectic fortnight

  Pep Guardiola has revealed Manchester City are affected by travel problems during one of their most hectic periods of the season.

  City have four away games in less than a fortnight, with Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup trip to Newcastle followed by a Premier League clash with Wolves, a Champions League outing to Leipzig and then another league game against Arsenal.

  Guardiola’s men would normally travel back by train or plane to minimise time on the road but neither is available on Wednesday.

  “We cannot come back by plane because we don’t have planes to travel back so we have to take a bus, it’s two, three hours later, we arrive here so, so late,” said the Catalan.

  “Then Friday we have to travel to Wolves. We go to Germany to play Champions League, it’s a really, really important game for us because we know what it means to be able to win there for qualification for the next stage. This is what we have to do.”

  Guardiola admits he will have to play several players he would rather rest because of injury and suspension issues in midfield, while he does not feel he can call on academy products.

  “We cannot take a few of them because we sell a lot of them and still they are not ready to play with us,” he said. “That’s why I have to give time to them to develop. They are still so young to play Newcastle away.”

  One player who will start is Kalvin Phillips, who impressed Guardiola after coming on against Nottingham Forest last weekend.

  It will be just a fifth start for the midfielder since his move from Leeds last summer, where his performances under Marcelo Bielsa persuaded City to sign him.

  “I think Marcelo gave Kalvin the best of Kalvin in his career,” said Guardiola. “I would love to have done with Kalvin what Marcelo has done to him. But it’s where he is.

  “We have a specific way to play. Sometimes he struggles with a few things, but the previous game was perfect. He’s open-minded, he always wants to learn, always wants to help and this is what I try to do.”

  Guardiola named “exhausted” Kyle Walker as one player he will rest but, whatever team he puts out, he expects a better performance than the one that saw City dumped out of the competition by Southampton in the quarter-finals last season.

  “What we don’t want to do is perform not who we are in terms of the principles and who we are as a team, which happened last season against Southampton,” he said.

  “That’s the worst game I’ve had as manager of Man City, by far. I didn’t recognise anything about that. You can lose, of course, credit to Southampton in that game, but you have to meet a minimum and this is what I want from my team in every single game, every single competition.

  “And tomorrow it’s going to happen, I’m pretty sure of that.”

• Sam Bowen earns overdue win for Wealdstone

  Sam Bowen’s fine strike proved to be the difference as Wealdstone beat Woking in the Vanarama National League.

  The hosts had won just one of their previous seven games before Bowen struck from the edge of the box to seal a 1-0 victory.

  Bowen’s goal came just after the 15-minute mark and he almost repeated the feat five minutes later but this time shot wide.

  Goalkeeper Jed Ward made a number of crucial saves to keep Woking at bay as the home side secured the points.