Mauricio Pochettino has insisted that fans must accept that Chelsea are no longer the same club of the last 20 years as he delivered a passionate speech following the FA Cup win over Aston Villa.
The Blues eased the mounting pressure on their under-fire head coach that had built sharply again following wretched back-to-back Premier League losses against Liverpool and Wolves in which they shipped eight goals in total, with Conor Gallagher scoring his first goal of the season before Nicolas Jackson’s header and a superb Enzo Fernandez free-kick helped Chelsea to stun high-flying Villa 3-1 in their own backyard in Wednesday night’s fourth-round replay, setting up a home date with Leeds in the last 16 later this month.
Fernandez produced a passionate celebration after his 25-yard belter past Argentina team-mate Emiliano Martinez, removing his shirt and hosting it aloft, with his agent having revealed shortly before kick-off that there was no truth to the rumours that his client was already looking to leave Stamford Bridge just a year after his then-British record £106.8million transfer from Benfica.
Questions regarding that celebration brought a lengthy response from a passionate Pochettino, who spoke in detail about the abuse received by players as he also reiterated his desire for the Chelsea fans - more than 6,000 of whom revelled in a shock victory at Villa Park on Wednesday night - and team to form a bond in a renewed message about setting more realistic expectations, insisting he did not care if his comments were not well received.
Chelsea fans once again chanted the name of former owner Roman Abramovich before Gallagher’s opening goal against Villa, while they also sung about ex-boss Jose Mourinho during the Wolves match on Sunday.
"Look, today, we live in an era when it's easy to abuse, to the people,” Pochettino said of Fernandez’s celebration. “It's normal that the players are human and are not robots. It's so easy to abuse.
"I think we need to understand that we are playing football and of course, this type of situation makes us hungry, situations that are completely unfair. Today, Enzo showed why he is here, he showed the quality but we didn't have doubts about him, or about [Moises] Caicedo, or about different young players that arrived here with expectation to win titles and to score with every single touch.
"I think it's so important what I told you yesterday: to create a very good energy between our fans, with the club, with the players, because the players need help, they need help from the fans. And today the fans were fantastic with this connection, with this energy, and the players on the pitch showing they care about the club, they want to win and want to succeed. Only good things can happen.
"We need to stop thinking we are Chelsea from the last 20 years because we are not any more this type of Chelsea that people believe. Now we need to move on and all together, we need to create this project and provide the team, the youngest team in the Premier League, the possibility to perform, to find the balance, to be consistent, not only to play good today and tomorrow.
"Okay, we are young or we made a mistake, or we believe that we are there at the level that everyone wants. That makes me sad because people need to realise that this is not anymore. We need to move on, move on, move on.
"I don't care if the people are happy with my speech, it's only that I care for the club, I care for my players, I want to help the players. We as a coaching staff care a lot and want the best for the players and the club. We are going to fight. I don't care what the people say, or what the people is going to make noise to try to tackle in this way to build something.
"I am not talking because we won the game today and it's easy to talk. No, I was talking about this in the same way yesterday.
“I am not more sad or happy about today after the win than after Wolverhampton because we already know, because we have experience, that this type of project needs time and it needs trust because we cannot build a team that is able to challenge others fighting for big things in a few months because you need to fix too many things, because you need to observe, you need to analyse, you need to compete, you need to compete and see how complete this team is with another formation, another player, different names.
"We are building a project that is maybe going to be one years, two years, three years. But in the moment, we are at the start of the project and it is going to be completely different and after it is going to be different. But that is so important how we translate the message and yes, because we want to succeed."
Pochettino held a meeting with his players on Tuesday following Sunday’s debacle against Wolves, in which they lost 4-2 at home despite taking an early lead, reiterating his trust and belief in their project.
Asked after the Villa game how important that was, he said: “Really important. The mental is the most important thing. What I can see today, I don't know if it's because of the last few days we were talking or the noise around the team. I saw the team really free, enjoying playing football. That is the most important [thing] because football is about enjoying.
“We need to stop thinking we are Chelsea from the last 20 years because we are not”
"We were talking yesterday about this is not my job, it's our passion. Players need to go there and be free, to enjoy, and not be thinking nothing and express their talent. After the game, we had another meeting here now and I told them, 'Look, it's about trust, it's about the energy, it's about how you approach the game'.
"A real team need to behave different, they need to approach the game different. And today you can see in the middle before the start, we were ready to fight. After you can win or lose, but the right attitude, the right approach. We were united, we were ready to fight for each other, fight for our fans, fight for the badge, fight for the coaching staff.
"That is the connection we need to build, and now the challenge is to be consistent. We need to perform and after now to analyse, to show them, for them to process and be able to perform in this way. Because that is mental energy to be able to work in this."
Singing the praises of Fernandez in particular, Pochettino added: “He is a world champion player. Look, when he signed one year ago, he arrived after nearly two years with no holidays, no rest, with the pressure, still young, different environment, different language, different culture, a team that needs time to build. All of these types of circumstance, you need time.
"I don't want to annoy the people. For me, it's not an excuse. I want to be here because I really believe in the project, I really believe in the player. But please, stop trying to create expectation that does not match to the reality and help the players that are here to try and build something.
"Of course, if that happens again, we will be there to help. It does not surprise me because Enzo has the quality, not only to score this type of goal, but to perform in the way today he performed."
