Perhaps it was the snow that had started to fall at Chelsea’s training ground in Cobham. But as Mauricio Pochettino looked ahead to his team’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at Middlesbrough on Tuesday night, he was taken back to his first appearance at this stage of the competition.
It was 2014-15, his debut season at Tottenham, and they had also drawn lower-league opposition. For Middlesbrough from the Championship read Sheffield United, then of League One. After a 1-0 first-leg win, Pochettino took a side that was at the beginning of its journey to Bramall Lane. There was a blizzard that night; hailstones, the lot. And a lesson.
