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A 1-1 draw with Liverpool on the opening weekend of the new campaign was followed by a disheartening 3-1 defeat at West Ham United last time out, and Pochettino will be looking for his first competitive victory as Chelsea boss when his side host newly promoted Luton Town on Friday. The Blues have not played particularly poorly in either match and are arguably unlucky to not have more points on the board, but the Premier League is ruthless and things need to change fast. Here is how Pochettino could line up against Luton to earn his first three points as Chelsea boss. After such a promising and positive preseason, the season itself has gotten off to a slightly rockier start with a credible home draw against Liverpool and a somewhat naive defeat away to West Ham.
We played better than that for large stretches of those 180 minutes, but have just one point, and plenty of early angst already, to show for all that. But next up is a home game against Luton Town, who are back in the top tier of English football for the first time in 30 years. Opportunities to get a win and start building confidence once again don’t come much better than this. However, we do have more injury concerns to deal with it yet again, even if Carney Chukwuemeka appears to have avoided the worst with his knee injury. He’s set to miss six weeks, joining Reece James, Trevoh Chalobah, Benoît Badiashile, Wesley Fofana, Christopher Nkunku, and Marcus Bettinelli on the sidelines.
Armando Broja does look very close now thankfully, but Mykhailo Mudryk was a surprise (and as yet unexplained) absence in yesterday’s (Wednesday’s) training after taking part on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Roméo Lavia is playing catch-up on preseason (just like Moisés Caicedo). Chelsea are back in Premier League action with a must-win game at home to Luton on Friday. Mauricio Pochettino has not won either of his first two outings as Blues boss even despite promising moments and a defeat to a newly-promoted Hatters side would pile the pressure on. Even at this early stage of the season, the Blues simply have to win. The optics of losing to Luton, with all due respect to Rob Edwards and his team, are hardly worth considering.
The Hatters have not played since their opening weekend defeat to Brighton but have little to lose on their trip to west London. Our opening two fixtures of the Premier League campaign – home to Liverpool, away at West Ham United – have yielded a single point and much frustration. The performances deserved more. Luton’s visit to Stamford Bridge on Friday evening provides another opportunity for the Blues to claim the first victory of the Pochettino era. The focus this week is firmly on three points. The first-team squad regrouped at Cobham this morning and undertook a session in the warm sun, something of a rarity in the UK this summer. Raheem Sterling was involved and he spoke after the match at West Ham about why he has hit the ground running this season.
