Mauricio Pochettino has urged Chelsea supporters not to judge him on whether or not his team lifts the Carabao Cup at Wembley on Sunday.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool stand in the way of a first trophy since co-owner Todd Boehly bought the club in May 2022 and began a radical overhaul.
The Argentinian is also aiming to win silverware for the first time in England, having been runner-up in this competition to his current club in 2015 while in charge of Tottenham.
And he pointed to the example of his opposite number on Sunday as a coach who enjoyed a strong reputation even before his first trophy win.
Klopp defeated Pochettino’s Spurs in the 2019 Champions League final almost four years into his Anfield reign, having missed out on the previous year’s Premier League title by a single point to Manchester City.
“I think it’s not going to increase my popularity or the way the fans are going to see us,” said Pochettino on his team’s prospects on Sunday.
“Klopp was good before he arrived at Liverpool. He had three or four years that he didn’t win. Now he’s won the Champions League and the Premier League.
“I don’t judge a coach or coaching staff for winning titles. It’s about being competitive and winning, but there are too many factors that influence.
“If you have good player, you should be close to winning. Maybe everyone will say you’re the best coach in the world. But everyone knows it’s not like this.
“The thing is to be in the right moment, in the right club that trusts in you with the tools and the possibility to win.
“Some fans will say you’re not good because you didn’t win. For me, it’s not the way to judge a coaching staff.”
Chelsea’s indifferent season has taken on a new complexion after three impressive away performances.
Consecutive 3-1 wins at Aston Villa in the FA Cup and Crystal Palace in the league were followed by a fine 1-1 draw against champions Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium a week ago.
Prior to that, the team were booed off by supporters at the end of their most recent home fixture, a 4-2 loss to Wolves at Stamford Bridge, days after they were thrashed 4-1 at Anfield.
Pochettino believes that, regardless of Sunday’s result, he is already held in high esteem in England.
“I feel the respect from the football people in this country,” he said. “I really appreciate it, because after five years in Spain and then in France, I feel the competition here – the Premier League, the fans, how people live football.
“It’s a perfect organisation to enjoy my job. It’s my passion to be involved in the game that we love.
“But we want to win because we are very competitive. We want to win because of the people that trust in us, like the owners, the sporting directors, the fans.
“After 11 years here, we feel the respect. That is the most important thing.”
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
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